DHS memo confirms plans to convert Arizona prison into ICE detention center

The federal government confirmed this week that it intends to convert a shuttered Arizona state prison into an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) prison, substantiating concerns that community members and state leaders have been warning about for months.

On Wednesday, the department posted a notice to award a sole-source contract to Management and Training Corporation (MTC) to run an immigration detention facility in the Marana prison.

The memo states that the facility would need to house 775 people, "while also providing guards, meals, medical care, and transportation services" and should be fully operational "within a reasonable time of the contract award date," which was not specified.

The memo was released just days after U.S. representatives Adelita Grijalva, Greg Stanton and Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz.) sent a letter to the DHS demanding answers regarding the facility’s future use.

MTC, which operates detention and correctional facilities nationwide, quietly acquired the Marana site in July 2025 from the Arizona Department of Administration. MTC was the previous owner before the state obtained it in 2013. For months, immigration, environmental and civil rights activists have been fighting to prevent the former prison from becoming an ICE detention center.

Pima Resists ICE (PRICE), a local advocacy group, said in a statement that “this is exactly what we have been warning [city council] about since October.”

The Pima County-based coalition, composed of community leaders, experts and residents, was formed in opposition to the conversion of the state prison into an ICE detention center. They have actively voiced their concerns at Town of Marana Council meetings, demanding that its members take a stance against the now-confirmed federal immigration prison.

In the statement, PRICE warned of the town and its surrounding areas being turned into “a prison town overrun by ICE agents and their violent and racist practices.”

Before the memo was released, neither MTC nor the federal government had confirmed plans for the conversion of the former state prison, although it was almost assured.

In emails obtained and reviewed in November by Arizona Luminaria, Marana officials told MTC that zoning for the facility was already in place. At the time, an MTC executive asked what permits were required to turn the former state prison into a federal immigration detention facility. 

PRICE also warned of MTC practices, condemning them as “dangerous and inhumane.”

In October 2025, CALÓ News published a story that revealed MTC controversial track record — per numerous government oversight reports — including staffing shortfalls, medical neglect, and poor facility conditions at its five ICE detention centers across the U.S., which the company manages.

The state of Arizona already is home to five detention facilities: the Central Arizona Florence Correctional Center, the Eloy Detention Center, the San Luis Regional Detention Center and two facilities at the Florence Service Processing Center, which are split into a main holding facility and a short-term “staging” facility meant to hold detainees for a maximum of 72 hours.

In addition to the incoming Marana facility, the DHS recently purchased a warehouse in Surprise, a suburban city just over 120 miles north of the town. Located on Sweetwater Avenue and Dysart Road, the facility was quietly purchased by the DHS for over $70 million on Jan. 23.

With an approved $45 billion budget to increase detention, federal officials are reported to be scouting more facilities to hold the increasing number of detainees nationwide.

CALÓ News reporters Analisa Valdez and Raphael Romero Ruiz contributed to this article.