Former California City Prison On It’s Way to Becoming Next ICE Detention Facility in California

For much of the first half of the 2020’s, the California City Correctional Facility (CCCF) in Kern County went from bad to worse. Sparked by Governor Gavin Newsom’s promise to reduce the number of prisons, CCCF went from being on the chopping block in 2019, to having an announced closure in 2022, to being closed in 2024. During the time, CoreCivic also took over, making the CCCF a privately run facility.

However, as California cut prisons, the federal government soon had a huge need for them. Following Donald Trump being sworn into a second term as President in January, the federal government ramped up deportations of illegal immigrants. While there were many facilities ready to hold illegal immigrants in the Southeast, the West was somewhat lacking. And as states like California, Nevada, and Arizona had significant numbers of illegal immigrants, the need for holding facilities was a pressing concern.

By June 2025, around 59,000 illegal immigrants were being detained at these centers, with Los Angeles ICE raids alone bringing in hundreds a day for processing and deportation. And by this point, the idle 2,304 cell CCCF was just too good to pass up.

In April, CoreCivic confirmed a preliminary agreement with ICE to use the CCCF, with a longer term agreement this week now setting up the CCCF, which was built in only 1998, to open up as an ICE detention facility.

As the prison closure caused many jobs to be lost at the prison and a major employer to suddenly go away, the city sees the reopening of the CCCF facility as an ICE facility for the foreseeable future as a huge win for the struggling city.

“It’s been mostly positive,” explained California City Mayor Marquette Hawkins. “We’ve heard a few questions again related to ICE and the facility itself and the transition possibly from a correctional facility to an immigration processing center. Nothing is written in stone yet. Contracts haven’t been finalized or anything like that.

“I have requested and even on a tour with the individuals who run the facility, CoreCivic, that the city have some oversight if and when it does open, that we have the ability to make sure that the conditions are humane and folks are being treated fairly.”

A new ICE facility

However, state officials, like Attorney General Rob Bonta, have opposed the CCCF facility from reopening, stating that there is already too many such ICE facilities in California. Currently in the state, there are 6 ICE detention facilities, including the Mesa Verde facility in Bakersfield just down the road from California City.

“We urge California City to reject the false promise of prosperity and stand against the expansion of immigrant detention,” added the Dolores Huerta Foundation.

With the CCCF likely now to reopen as an ICE detention facility for illegal immigrants residing in Southern and Central California, those who oppose it can’t really blame California City for wanting to do this. It’s an unused prison in good condition that will need minimal conversion work from CoreCivic. It will bring back taxes and jobs to the city. And, as for how ICE facilities go, CCCF will be secure and close enough to major airports and highways to readily bring in and out illegal immigrants.

If those in opposition want anyone to blame, it should really fall back on Governor Newsom.  He’s the one that fought so hard to close more prisons in California as a way to save money and reduce the prison population. While that had many other issues to come along with it (crime, less punishment for criminals, etc.), a closed but pristine prison currently under private hands was just begging to be brought back to usage in some way, shape, or form. And by the timing of it all, it was something that some lawmakers in Sacramento were even more opposed to – ICE facilities.

With the CCCF on it’s way to becoming an ICE facility, Newsom just essentially traded in something he hated, only for something he hated even more to come in and replace it.