The Prairieland Detention Center is a detention facility for immigrants owned by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Alvarado, Texas. Since opening in January 2017, the facility has held hundreds of detainees, with annual averages ranging from 245 to 960, the fiscal year 2026 figure. A planned unit for transgender detainees was never opened at Prairieland.
Prairieland was one of eight ICE detention facilities operating at more than a hundred inmates over its designed capacity in mid-2025. According to its builders, the facility was designed for around 500 inmates, with 70,440 square feet of housing for detainees.https://www.sedalco.com/projects/prairieland-detention-center-2-2/
At its 2017 opening, Prarieland Detention Center was operated by the private prison company Emerald Correctional Management LLC. Emerald went out of business and LaSalle Corrections took over Prarieland by 2018.
On the evening of July 4, 2025, eleven individuals set off fireworks, and vandalized parked vehicles and a guard structure in protest against the campaign of mass deportation carried out during the second presidency of Donald Trump.
Detained population
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