ICE opens detention facility in California, second new center under Trump
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has expanded into another detention facility in California, marking its eighth active center in the state.
The 700-bed facility, called Central Valley Annex, is located in McFarland, a small Kern County town about 25 miles northwest of Bakersfield. It was previously a private prison and most recently used to house detainees from the U.S. Marshals Service.
This newest ICE facility, first reported by CalMatters, is the second to open in the state since President Donald Trump took office. Advocates and lawmakers have consistently criticized the conditions inside centers and the federal administration’s push to increase detainee numbers.
“We reject and do not want more immigration detention in California or any part of the country for that matter,” said Edwin Carmona-Cruz, co-executive director for California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice, on Friday afternoon. “It is clear that this does more harm than it does good and it impacts families in many different ways.”
California now has about 9,200 beds across eight U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facilities. All are operated by private companies and located in the southern half of the state. As of early April, 5,807 people were detained in California facilities, according to Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, also known as TRAC. That number is nearly double the average daily population from April 2025.
Nearly 70% of the people held at California’s detention centers have no criminal conviction, according to previous reporting from The Sacramento Bee.
Advocates, like Carmona-Cruz, said they first heard last week detainees were being transferred to the Central Valley Annex. The facility will be operated by the for-profit prison company GEO Group, which has held a contract with ICE for the site and two other Central Valley detention centers since 2019.
The company’s two other ICE detention facilities are the Mesa Verde ICE Processing Center in Bakersfield and Golden State Annex, which is directly adjacent to the new facility.
But unlike those two sites, ICE had not previously used Central Valley Annex. The facility most recently housed detainees for the U.S. Marshals Service.
ICE and GEO Group did not respond to questions about when the immigration agency began using Central Valley Annex, how many detainees are being housed or whether the facility is still being used by the U.S. Marshals Service. The federal law enforcement agency also did not respond to a request for comment.
As of Friday morning, GEO Group’s website listed the U.S. Marshals Service as the facility’s client. Less than two hours after an email inquiry from The Bee, the company updated its website to list ICE as the client.
The website now states: “The support services GEO provides on behalf of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement include around-the-clock access to medical care, in-person and virtual legal and family visitation, general and legal library access, dietician-approved meals, religious and specialty diets, recreational amenities and opportunities to practice their religious beliefs.”
In a response to CalMatters, an ICE spokesperson said the facility opened within the last two weeks “under an existing intergovernmental services agreement” that “has been in place for several years.
It is unclear if the GEO Group or ICE followed the proper process under the state law to begin using the facility for immigration detention. Under a California law enacted in 2018, a city, county or public agency must provide notice and hold public meetings before approving permits or allowing the reuse of existing buildings for immigration proceedings.
In a written statement Friday afternoon, the California Attorney General’s Office said it was “monitoring reports” that the Central Valley Annex was receiving detainees but could not “provide legal analysis” in response to questions about the facility’s opening and if it complied with the law.
“Since the Trump administration took office, there’s been a dramatic surge in detainee populations at immigration detention facilities across California, exacerbating already inhumane and substandard conditions at existing facilities,” the office said.
McFarland Vice Mayor Ricardo Cano learned of the new facility through a Bee reporter on Friday morning. He referred further questions to the city manager. The other four McFarland city council members and city manager did not respond to a request for comment.
“This was new to me, so I have to do my research right now,” Cano said.
ICE’s use of the Central Valley Annex comes about eight months after the opening of the California City Immigration Processing Center, the state’s largest detention facility. The center, which is located in a remote desert about 70 miles east of Bakersfield, has a capacity for more than 2,500 people.
The Fresno Bee and several news outlets have reported for months about concerns of overcrowding, sanitation, medical negligence and extended isolation at the California City center and other facilities.
CoreCivic, the private company that operates the California City facility, and DHS denied the accusations of unsanitary conditions and mistreatment of detainees.
In December, after a state inspection at that facility, Attorney General Rob Bonta sent a letter to the DHS citing “grave concerns“ about the quality of medical care and living conditions. His office said in an earlier report from 2025 that all the state’s detention centers needed to make “significant improvements” to comply with ICE standards.
In January, U.S. Sens. Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff, both Democrats representing California, echoed such concerns after visiting the California City facility.
“Detention is deadly, regardless of presidential administration,” Carmona-Cruz said. “And of course, now more than ever.”
The Fresno Bee’s Melissa Montalvo contributed to this story.
