SAN DIEGO (NEWS 8) - A contractor working for private prison company CoreCivic has applied for construction permits to expand Otay Mesa Detention Center, which houses immigrants awaiting court proceedings.
It contracts directly with the federal government to hold people in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody while they wait for hearings in immigration court.
This is the only immigration detention facility in San Diego County and the plan since 2015 has been to add just over 500 beds.
It also houses people in U.S. Marshals Service custody who are awaiting trial in federal court. The ICE and Marshals detainees stay in separate units. A spokesperson for the company says this expansion is not in response to any current situation or policies.
The new plans would add 512 beds to the facility through a construction project valued at more than $6 million dollars.
On Sunday, Trump tweeted that the U.S. "cannot allow all of these people to invade our Country" AND "with no Judges or Court Cases, bring them back from where they came."
Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren responded to the tweet after touring an immigration center in south Texas.
"When a women comes here with her 4 year old son and says I am asking for amnesty I have been threatened by gangs in my homes country, we should at least give her a hearing," Sen. Elizabeth Warren said.
The company had to pay close to $22,000 to the county in filing fees for the project, according to county records. The facility has been hiring in recent months, with groups of hopeful future employees filing in, paperwork in hand, for interviews and background checks, according to The San Diego Union-Tribune. The number of people detained by the San Diego field office, which would include immigrants at both Otay Mesa and the Imperial Regional Detention Facility, has risen 17 percent, from 1,640 to 1,914 in the same time frame.