We went from 21 researched states to 32 today. Ninety-three new knowledge base entries — facilities, county fights, research notes — across eleven states that had never been investigated. Every one of them produced stories the heatmap alone couldn’t tell.

Tennessee: The Enforcement Machine

Tennessee is building the most advanced state-level enforcement architecture in the country. Governor Lee signed SB6002 during a special session in February 2025, creating a Centralized Immigration Enforcement Division with a $5 million grant program to fund local 287(g) participation — and criminal penalties for officials who adopt sanctuary policies. The number of participating agencies went from 14 to 60 in six months.

The Wilson County mega-center is the marquee story: ICE pursued a 16,000-bed facility in Lebanon — which would have been the largest in the United States. It died when 24 of 25 all-Republican county commissioners signed a resolution opposing it. Senator Blackburn announced the deal dead on February 25. Axios called it a “Republican revolt.”

In Memphis, a presidential executive order deployed hundreds of federal agents plus the National Guard. The county mayor declared a state of emergency. Of 1,044 people arrested, 77% had no criminal convictions. Tennessee Highway Patrol drove a vehicle into a peaceful anti-ICE march in January 2026.

In Nashville, an ICE-THP joint operation ran 600+ traffic stops over six nights in Latino neighborhoods. Body camera footage showed officers running arrest tallies and using slurs. THP subsequently rejected all further ICE collaboration — the operation was so egregious it turned the state’s own police against it.

Alabama: The Zombie Prison

The Etowah County Detention Center is 865 beds of documented abuse: no outdoor recreation for decades, no on-site doctor, the longest average stays in the system. ICE closed it in March 2022, citing a “long history of serious deficiencies.” Three years later, Sheriff Horton reopened it after Tom Homan personally encouraged sheriffs at the National Sheriffs’ Association conference. The Marshall Project calls facilities like this “zombie prisons.”

In Baldwin County, ICE conducted at least 15 warrantless raids on construction sites. U.S. citizen Leonardo Garcia Venegas was detained twice despite presenting proof of citizenship — agents detained everyone who “looked Latino” while ignoring other workers. The Institute for Justice, a libertarian public interest firm, filed a class-action lawsuit. When even right-leaning legal organizations are challenging ICE tactics, the constitutional overreach is extreme.

Kansas: “Our Reservations Were the First Detention Centers”

The Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation’s business arm signed a $29.9 million contract with DHS to design warehouse mega-centers for ICE. Within three weeks, tribal Chairman Joseph Rupnick fired the business arm leadership, publicly declared he was “heartbroken,” and pulled the tribe out entirely. His words: “We know our Indian reservations were the government’s first attempts at detention centers.”

In Leavenworth, CoreCivic won a 1,033-bed facility permit on a 4-1 vote despite 42 public speakers opposing and only 3 in favor. The $1 million payment plus 300 jobs proved decisive. Kansas also overrode the governor’s veto to pass HB 2372, stripping county commissions of authority over 287(g) agreements and creating $1,000-per-quarter bounties per officer.

New York: 226 Charter Flights

The Batavia Federal Detention Facility — New York’s only ICE detention center — is running 745 detainees on a 650-bed capacity. The DHS Inspector General found use-of-force violations, no on-site doctor or dentist, and a 150-person medical backlog. It ranks 7th nationally for solitary confinement. Since January 2025, 226 suspected ICE charter flights have operated from Buffalo airport. 83% of detainees have no criminal history.

At 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan, ICE admitted in court it was running a secret 9th-floor detention area to evade a judge’s order. People were held for days without showers or medical care. A class-action trial is set for May 26, 2026.

In Nassau County, ICE detainee Santos Reyes-Banegas was found dead less than 18 hours after arriving at the county jail. The county earns $195 per detainee per night.

Mississippi: Second Largest, Most Aggressive

Adams County Correctional Center, operated by CoreCivic in Natchez, is the second largest ICE facility in the country — 2,260 beds averaging 2,154 detainees per day. Only 9% have any criminal conviction. Detainee Delvin Francisco Rodriguez died December 14, 2025 under circumstances his family and facility nurses say are inconsistent with ICE’s account.

Mississippi passed SB 2511, requiring every county jail in the state to enter a 287(g) agreement by January 1, 2026. The governor can remove non-compliant sheriffs from office. No other state has gone this far.

The Pattern Across Eleven States

Everywhere we looked, we found the same structure:

The budget trap. New Hampshire’s Strafford County earns $9 million per year from ICE at $150/day per detainee — without it, property taxes would rise 20%. Knox County, Tennessee is losing money: ICE reimburses $83-114/day against a $140 actual cost. Once a county starts, exiting is nearly impossible.

The 287(g) explosion. New York went from 1 to 12 agreements. Kansas from 3 to 20+. Ohio from 0 to 20. Tennessee from 14 to 60+. New Hampshire is the only New England state with any — it has 15.

The sanctuary paradox. Massachusetts’ Democratic governor defends the state’s existing 287(g) agreement (2,047 transfers since 2009) while banning all new ones. Washington’s 7-jurisdiction moratorium is the most coordinated regional preemptive defense we’ve documented — and ICE still quintupled arrests. Maryland passed three layers of defense, and 9 sheriffs announced they’ll defy the state law.

The reversal. Bristol County, Massachusetts went from Sheriff Hodgson (most aggressive ICE collaborator in the country, $800K abuse settlement, fired by DHS) to Sheriff Heroux (zero transfers since November 2025). One county, two sheriffs, opposite outcomes.

Michigan Deep Update

The existing Michigan entries — stubs from earlier research — got a full overhaul. North Lake Baldwin is now documented as a conditions crisis: Bulgarian national Nenko Gantchev died December 15, 2025; dozens of 911 calls show suicide attempts and cardiac events; 800+ habeas petitions filed, most granted. The Romulus warehouse is effectively frozen under Secretary Mullin’s review of all Noem-era contracts — 11 warehouses, $1.074 billion, and a $38.3 billion expansion plan, all paused.

The Numbers

The coverage gaps page shows where the data is still thin. The contribute page explains how to submit what you know. The site has also been redesigned — larger fonts throughout, a new homepage with clearer paths for activists, journalists, and researchers, and county pages that lead with data and end with a compact call to investigate.

Thirty-two states down. Eighteen to go.

Data current as of April 12, 2026. The Detention Pipeline is at detention-pipeline.transparencycascade.org.