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The Trump regime is looking at the shuttered former Augusta Correctional Center in Craigsville as a possible location for an ICE detention center.

I hate to say, this one is too easy to make happen for it not to end up happening.

We’re learning this through the ACLU, which obtained, through a Freedom of Information Act request, that the regime is considering a total of six new locations for its ICE gulags, with our former prison facility at the top of the list.

The former Augusta Correctional Center facility, which was closed by the state in 2024, is on the low end of the scale in terms of capacity – the state listed its capacity at 1,222 inmates.


ICYMI


I’m assuming there that the feds, under the thumb of Stephen Miller, wouldn’t mind shoving as many detainees as it could get away with in that tiny space.

The ACLU got its hands on the regime’s plans in response to a lawsuit filed in October, after ICE failed to respond to a previous FOIA request.

The civil-liberties group highlighted in a press release past issues at ACC that factored into the state’s decision to close the facility – including documented sexual assaults of inmates, and guilty pleas on drug-smuggling charges involving former corrections officers.

“It’s egregious that ICE is actively considering reopening facilities notorious for abuse and corruption – and they’re using our taxpayer dollars to fuel this expansion,” said Eunice Cho, senior counsel at the ACLU’s National Prison Project. “Six people have already died in ICE custody in the first three weeks of the year. ICE has given us no reason to believe that these detention centers would be any safer than the abusive facilities it already operates.”

“The Trump administration cannot be allowed to continue its weaponization of immigration detention in secret,” said Sophia Gregg, senior immigrants’ rights attorney at the ACLU of Virginia. “As we have seen, abuse and civil rights violations are rampant in these facilities, and the public has a right to know where and how the government intends to expand its use of these deadly facilities.”

Video: Augusta County to host ICE detention site?


Published by Chris Graham

Chris Graham is the founder and editor of Augusta Free Press. A 1994 alum of the University of Virginia, Chris is the author and co-author of seven books, including Poverty of Imagination, a memoir published in 2019. For his commentaries on news, sports and politics, go to his YouTube page, TikTok, BlueSky, or subscribe to Substack or his Street Knowledge podcast. Email Chris at chris@augustafreepress.com.