Overview

Bluebonnet Detention Center is a converted 122,000 sq ft state prison in Anson (Jones County), about 24 miles north of Abilene and roughly 200 miles west of Dallas. Built in 2010 to house Texas Department of Criminal Justice prisoners, it sat empty for nearly a decade before Jones County contracted with ICE and operator Management and Training Corporation (MTC) to reopen it as an immigration detention facility in summer 2024 under an IGSA (intergovernmental service agreement) — ICE contract number 70CDCR19DIG000017. It now holds roughly 1,000 detainees, mostly adult men with up to 72 beds for women; Vera Institute data puts average daily population at 993, i.e. running near full capacity. ICE’s Dallas Area of Responsibility (AOR) oversees the facility.

This is the largest single detention signal in Jones County and sits alongside the smaller Abilene Hold Room (also Jones County) and the Stamford PD 287(g) TFM agreement — the three heatmap signals that made this county score 79.

Key Details

Contract/finances: ICE pays a per-diem rate to MTC via the county IGSA structure (historically ~$106/day/detainee at facility opening in 2019 reporting; current rate not independently reconfirmed for 2025-2026 in this pass).

Alien Enemies Act transfers (April-May 2025): After a federal judge in South Texas blocked deportations of Venezuelan nationals under the 18th-century Alien Enemies Act, the Trump administration funneled Venezuelan detainees to Bluebonnet instead, where no blocking order was in place. U.S. District Judge James Wesley Hendrix (N.D. Tex., a Trump appointee) declined to bar removals from Bluebonnet, crediting ICE’s sworn declarations that deportations weren’t imminent, and declined to issue a broader order covering all Venezuelans held there. The ACLU sought emergency Supreme Court intervention; the Court directed the administration not to remove Venezuelans held at Bluebonnet “until further order of this court.” This made Bluebonnet a proving ground for AEA-based removal and venue-shopping — detainees moved to whichever district lacked a protective order. (Washington Post, May 9-10, 2025; PBS NewsHour Alien Enemies Act coverage, April 2025.)

Conditions complaints (2025): In late July 2025, North Texas Reps. Julie Johnson, Marc Veasey, and Jasmine Crockett sent a joint letter to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and acting ICE Director Todd Lyons requesting an investigation after reports of overcrowding and poor conditions. Rep. Johnson toured the facility on September 5, 2025, and reported constituent complaints of lack of legal-counsel access, poor food quality, and cleanliness issues. She noted many detainees are classified “low threat” or have no criminal history, and cited one Cuban national held 11 months awaiting processing because Cuba would not accept his deportation. Johnson requested facility records and said she would follow up with the Dallas ICE Field Office. (KERA News, Sept. 8, 2025.)

Broader Texas buildout context: Bluebonnet operates in the same period ICE has pursued a much larger ~20,000-bed “mega” warehouse expansion across Texas (Hutchins/Dallas, El Paso, San Antonio, Los Fresnos), reported by The Barbed Wire (Feb. 19, 2026) and El Paso Matters. Bluebonnet is not one of the new warehouse-conversion mega-sites — it’s an earlier-generation converted state prison — but it demonstrates the same IGSA-county-partner model those newer sites are scaling up.

National death-rate context: DHS Inspector General announced in June 2026 a review of ICE detainee deaths in custody (Oct. 2021-Mar. 2026) after a rising death toll — 11 in 2024, 33 in 2025, 20 in 2026 year-to-date as of the announcement, with the 2026 rate at 72.32 per 100,000, up from 13.29 per 100,000 in 2022. No Bluebonnet-specific death has been confirmed in this research pass; flagging the national review as context since Bluebonnet is a high-population, low-legal-access facility of the type the IG review targets.

Sources

• Bluebonnet Detention Facility (ICE facility page)
• Venezuelan detainees moved to Texas facility where judge did not halt deportations — Washington Post (May 9, 2025)
• Read the Supreme Court order blocking new deportations of Venezuelans under the Alien Enemies Act — PBS News
• North Texas congresswoman calls for changes at ICE detention facility in West Texas — KERA News (Sept. 8, 2025)
• Congresswoman Julie Johnson to Tour Bluebonnet Detention Facility (press release)
• ICE Has Considered Adding 20,000 Detention Center Beds in Secretive Expansion Across Texas — The Barbed Wire (Feb. 19, 2026)
• DHS inspector general to review ICE detainee deaths, use of force — WBIR (June 2026)
• 70CDCR19DIG000017 P00032: Jones County (Bluebonnet Detention Facility) IGSA – Anson, TX — ICE contract record