The Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn, a federal facility with a history of violence and chronic understaffing, has been one of three facilities added to the network of institutions authorized to detain immigrants under U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody. The Federal Correctional Institution in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, and the Federal Detention Center in Honolulu are the others.
The expansion follows an interagency agreement between ICE and the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP), which has allowed thousands of immigrant detainees to be housed in federal prisons. As of mid-June, the BOP confirmed it had supported the “temporary detention” of more than 4,000 individuals under the agreement.
BOP spokesperson Benjamin O’Cone confirmed the inclusion of the three new facilities to the Miami Herald, stating that the Bureau will “continue to support our law enforcement partners to fulfill the administration’s policy objectives.” Details regarding capacity or implementation timelines were not disclosed…