Trumps plan for the largest U.S. deportation center where up to 10,000 migrants will wait to be sent home

A monster deportation center that could hold up to 10,000 migrants is being built on the US-Mexico border, members of President Donald Trumps administration have confirmed.

Trump has selected Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas is as the first of several planned mega migrant centers to carry out the largest deportation program of criminals in the of history America.

U.S. Secretary of the Army Daniel P. Driscoll toured the location last week to announce the holding center has been given the green light to begin construction in the coming days.

The process of preparing it and getting it ready to be built out will start to occur any day, Driscoll told the El Paso Times..

This is such an incredibly important mission. We believe to keep the American people safe.

News of the massive site was first reported on by the New York Times, who added Fort Bliss will be the first of several the Trump administration instead to stand up around the country.

Additional facilities could be built in Utah and New York near Niagara Falls. 

Located on the US-Mexico border in West Texas, Fort Bliss is already being used by the Trump administration as a spot where migrants are loaded on to planes before being flown back to their countries of origin or to third countries.

This image released by the Department of Defense shows US Customs and Border Protection agents guide undocumented migrants to board a C-17 Globemaster III aircraft assigned to the 60th Air Mobility Wing for a removal flight at Fort Bliss, Texas, on January 23

U.S. Customs and Border Protection security agents guide illegal aliens to board a removal flight at Fort Bliss, Texas, on Jan. 23, 2025. Under the direction of U.S. Northern Command, U.S. Transportation Command is supporting Immigration and Customs Enforcement removal flights by providing military airlift

At first, only about 1,000 migrants would be held at the Army post, however, the locations capacity could be expanded to hold more.

While touring the Texas installation, the secretary of the Army did not provide details about who would be held there: criminal aliens, families, single adults or unaccompanied migrant children.

In the past, Fort Bliss has housed accompanied migrant children during times when civilian detention centers run by Immigration and Customs Enforcement were full, however, that was meant to be a temporary measure to alleviate overcrowding.

The Army post has also held Afghan refugees in 2021 in another temporary situation. 

Citizens of that country who had helped American forces were airlifted out of Afghanistan by the US military after America pulled its forces out of the nation. 

Refugees were sent to El Paso for screening and vetting on a short-term basis until they could be resettled permanently. 

Tents are set up at Fort Bliss Dona Ana Village, in New Mexico, where Afghan refugees are being housed, Friday, Sept. 10, 2021. The Biden administration provided the first public look inside the U.S. military base where Afghans airlifted out of Afghanistan are screened, amid questions about how the government is caring for the refugees and vetting them

Afghan refugees are processed at Fort Bliss where they were being housed in  Sept. 10, 2021

A man walks with a child through Fort Bliss where Afghan refugees are being housed in 2021

A soldier stands inside a tent prepared to house Afghan refugees at Fort Bliss in 2021

28,319 migrants were deported in the first seven weeks of the Trump administration, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. 

That averages to around 3,887 per week, or 555 a day - twice last year’s average under Pres. Joe Biden.

However, its still not a high number to add up to millions of people arrested, like Trump promised.

The number of immigrants without criminal records arrested by ICE and detained rose by 500 percent from mid-January to late-March, according to ICE statistics.

ICE had nearly 48,000 immigrants in custody as of March 23, agency data showed, well beyond its funded capacity of 41,500.