The Prairieland Detention Center is a detention facility for immigrants owned by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Alvarado, Texas. Since opening in January 2017, the facility has held hundreds of detainees, with annual averages ranging from 245 to 960, the fiscal year 2026 figure. A planned unit for transgender detainees was never opened at Prairieland.[1]
  Location in Texas | |
| Location | |
|---|---|
| Status | Operational |
| Security class | Jail |
| Capacity | 525 |
| Population | 960 (FY 2026 (YTD)) |
| Opened | FY 2017 |
| Former name | Prairieland Detention Facility |
| Managed by | LaSalle Corrections |
Prairieland was one of eight ICE detention facilities operating at more than a hundred inmates over its designed capacity in mid-2025.[2] According to its builders, the facility was designed for around 500 inmates, with 70,440 square feet of housing for detainees.[3]
At its 2017 opening, Prarieland Detention Center was operated by the private prison company Emerald Correctional Management LLC.[4] Emerald went out of business and LaSalle Corrections took over Prarieland by 2018.[5]
On the evening of July 4, 2025, eleven individuals set off fireworks, and vandalized parked vehicles and a guard structure in protest against the campaign of mass deportation carried out during the second presidency of Donald Trump.[6]
Detained population
editReferences
edit- ↑ Owen, Tess (February 1, 2018). "That ICE prison for transgender immigrants? It never opened". VICE. Retrieved May 18, 2026.
- ↑ "Detention facilities operating over-capacity, new data shows". BorderReport. July 9, 2025. Retrieved May 18, 2026.
- ↑ https://www.sedalco.com/projects/prairieland-detention-center-2-2/
- ↑ Jr, By Reynaldo Leanos (January 12, 2017). "In a small Texas town, a new private detention center for transgender migrants brings jobs — and concerns". The World from PRX. Retrieved May 18, 2026.
- ↑ "Private Prison Operator Emerald Corrections Out of Business | Prison Legal News". www.prisonlegalnews.org. Retrieved May 18, 2026.
- ↑ Mittauer, Kelsy; Myers, Doug; Rosenbaum, Steven; Jenkins, S.E. (March 13, 2026). "Jury finds defendants guilty of terrorism-related charges in attack on Prairieland ICE detention center". CBS News.
- ↑ U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (September 30, 2019). "ICE Detention Statistics FY 2019". U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Additional fiscal year data: FY20, FY21, FY22, FY23, FY24, FY25, FY26.
- ↑ U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (July 10, 2017). "ICE DMCP Facility List — ERO Custody Management Division, FY2017" (PDF). U.S. Department of Homeland Security.