The site launched with 13 documented county fights. By morning, there are 20 — and each new one came from following signals the heatmap flagged but hadn’t explained.

Minnesota: The Operation Nobody Saw Coming

Washington County, Minnesota scored 31 on the heatmap. Modest. Three IGSA facilities and a county fight. But a visitor spent 46 seconds on the page and clicked through to a specific facility — the Oak Park Heights correctional center.

They weren’t looking at the prison. They were looking at the Woodbury warehouse in the same county — a newly built, vacant building at 11435 Hudson Road that the Washington Post identified in December 2025 as a planned 1,500-bed ICE processing site. Two hundred people packed the county board meeting on January 13. The board unanimously opposed it. The owner confirmed the next day: no sale.

That was one of three Minnesota facility proposals — all blocked. In Shakopee, developer Opus pulled out after state Rep. Brad Tabke mobilized opposition. In Appleton, CoreCivic’s shuttered 1,600-bed Prairie Correctional Facility was named in internal ICE documents as a reactivation target. Faith leaders protested. No contract has been signed.

Then came Operation Metro Surge: 2,000 federal agents deployed to the Twin Cities on January 6, 2026. Two U.S. citizens were killed by federal agents — Renee Good on January 7, Alex Pretti on January 24. An estimated 50,000 to 75,000 people marched through minus-20-degree weather on January 23. AG Keith Ellison filed a federal lawsuit. The ACLU won an injunction against Freeborn County’s 287(g) agreement, establishing that sheriffs cannot sign these unilaterally — the same legal theory now being tested in Pinal County, Arizona.

Colorado: Nine Hold Rooms Nobody Knew About

Someone browsed ten Colorado counties in one session, spending nearly three minutes on Adams County. The heatmap showed a score of 66 with five IGSA facilities. What it couldn’t show was the shadow detention network underneath.

Colorado Times Recorder revealed in March 2026 that ICE operates nine hold rooms across the state — unofficial detention sites in office buildings, strip malls, and bank buildings. No external signage. 2,831 people held from January through October 2025, ages 1 to 91. One operates from the Pueblo Bank & Trust building at 415 East Pikes Peak Avenue in Colorado Springs. Another from a strip mall in Glenwood Springs. The busiest runs from the ICE field office in Centennial, Arapahoe County — the same county where we found a “Detention Medical Center Expansion Tour” on the March 17 county commission agenda via Legistar.

The formal system: Aurora ICE Processing Center, 1,530 beds, GEO Group, $70 million expansion. Malnutrition documented at 198 calories per lunch against ICE’s own 500-calorie minimum. The Supreme Court ruled unanimously against GEO in a forced labor case. Aurora City Council voted 6-4 condemning “ICE overreach.” Adams County opened an investigation.

Three new facilities planned would triple Colorado’s formal detention capacity: Big Horn in Hudson (1,256 beds, GEO Group, contract signed), Walsenburg (752 beds, CoreCivic), and Ignacio (Southern Ute tribal facility). The ACLU obtained the expansion documents through a public records lawsuit.

South Carolina: 3 to 37 in One Year

Fourteen visitors searched South Carolina in the first day — more than any state except the homepage. They found thin coverage. That’s been corrected.

South Carolina went from 3 to 37 law enforcement agencies with 287(g) agreements in twelve months. SLED — the state law enforcement division — signed a Task Force Model agreement authorizing 47 agents with street-level immigration enforcement power. Small-town police departments in Gaston (population 800) and Pelion now have deputies who are federal immigration officers.

The state House passed H.4764 on April 2, voting 85-30 to require every law enforcement agency operating a jail to join 287(g). At the subcommittee hearing, every public testifier opposed the bill. No member of the public spoke in favor.

In Lexington County, 12 ICE-dedicated beds are “churning” constantly within 72-hour hold windows. ICE cannot place new detainees until others are moved out. This is the capacity pressure that precedes facility expansion. DHS reimburses participating agencies with a $1,000 quarterly bonus per officer achieving “90-100% assistance to ICE’s mission.”

3,000 people were arrested in South Carolina in 2025 — double the prior year.

Indiana: The Midwest Hub

Internal DHS documents show Indianapolis under consideration for a warehouse conversion holding 7,000 to 10,000 detainees, targeted for activation by November 2026. Marion County Jail hit capacity and stopped holding for ICE beyond 48 hours. The Miami Correctional Facility in Bunker Hill already activated with 1,000 ICE beds in October 2025.

Three layers of detention infrastructure assembling in a single metro: county jail overflow, state prison conversion, and a proposed warehouse mega-center.

Oklahoma: The $175 Million Enforcement Economy

Two warehouse proposals were blocked within weeks of each other. In Oklahoma City, property owners withdrew from a 416,000-square-foot warehouse deal after community protests. In Durant, the Choctaw Nation purchased a 1.24-million-square-foot former Big Lots warehouse that ICE had targeted — a sovereign tribal nation directly blocking federal detention infrastructure.

Behind the resistance: an enforcement economy estimated at $175 million annually flowing into Oklahoma law enforcement through federal reimbursements, detention contracts, and performance bonuses. More than 730 Highway Patrol troopers hold 287(g) agreements. At the Tulsa County Jail, 80% of ICE detainees had no prior convictions.

Oregon: Sanctuary Since 1987, 1,100 Arrests Anyway

Oregon has been a sanctuary state since 1987. Zero 287(g) agreements. Zero overnight detention facilities. Governor Kotek signed eight protection bills on April 9. Voters reaffirmed the sanctuary law in 2018.

ICE arrested 1,100 people in Oregon in 2025 — 75% in the last three months. Operation Black Rose set a target of 30 arrests per day using Palantir’s ELITE targeting app. ICE officers confirmed under oath that Palantir identified arrest locations. Only 32% of those arrested had criminal convictions.

In Lane County — where a visitor spent a full minute on the county page — the ACLU alleges the sheriff’s office called ICE when people posted bail and gave agents back-door access to the jail. A federal judge ruled in February 2026 that ICE’s warrantless arrests violated the Fourth and Fifth Amendments. In Newport, 800 people packed a city council meeting in a town of 10,000 after ICE tried to repurpose a Coast Guard air facility as a holding center.

34 of 36 Oregon sheriffs signed a letter seeking legal cover to cooperate with ICE despite state law.

Virginia: The Fastest Reversal

CoreCivic acquired the Farmville Detention Center from Immigration Centers of America on July 1, 2025, for $71.4 million — locking corporate detention into Prince Edward County through at least 2029. Population: 712 of 732 beds.

Under Governor Youngkin, Virginia went from zero 287(g) agreements to 28 in one year. Under Governor Spanberger, inaugurated January 2026, the state rescinded its agreements on day one. The General Assembly passed bills requiring judicial warrants for ICE cooperation, restricting the administrative warrants ICE normally uses.

But the Farmville IGSA runs through the county, not the state. Spanberger’s orders don’t reach it.

In Buckingham County — rural, adjacent to Farmville, dependent on two state prisons — school resource officers were nominated to serve as immigration enforcement. The Charlottesville school board affirmed a stance against ICE cooperation in April 2026, drawing a sharp contrast with the surrounding counties.

New Mexico: The Last Holdout

Curry County signed the only 287(g) agreement in New Mexico. Then the legislature passed the Immigrant Safety Act, banning local ICE detention contracts and 287(g) agreements statewide, effective May 20, 2026. The sheriff publicly decried the law. The legislature considered a $10.5 million compensation bill for counties losing detention revenue — a number that reveals the dependency.

The heatmap scores counties. The scores tell you where to look. What you find when you look is the story.

Twenty county fights documented. Nine states investigated. The coverage gaps page shows where the data is still thin. The contribute page explains how to submit what you know.

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