Chippewa County Correctional Facility — Sault Ste. Marie MI (County IGSA)
Overview
The Chippewa County Correctional Facility in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan is a 120-bed county jail that holds ICE detainees under an Intergovernmental Service Agreement (IGSA), active since at least 2023. Located in the Upper Peninsula on the Canadian border (International Bridge to Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario), the facility is managed by the Chippewa County Sheriff and overseen by ICE’s Detroit Field Office.
The facility detains adult men, adult women, and undocumented migrants on an administrative basis.
Key Details
- Capacity: 120 beds (shared between county inmates and ICE detainees)
- Operator: Chippewa County Sheriff’s Office
- IGSA: Active (in use as of 2025)
- ICE oversight: Detroit Field Office
- Detainee types: Adult men, women, and immigration detainees (administrative)
- Location significance: Upper Peninsula border county; International Bridge crossing to Canada
Context
Chippewa County is one of four county jails in Michigan that hold immigrants on behalf of ICE (along with Calhoun, Monroe, and St. Clair). Collectively, these four facilities held 346 detainees between May 27 and June 9, 2025 per the latest available ICE detention data.
As a remote Upper Peninsula facility, Chippewa presents significant access challenges for detainee families and attorneys, most of whom are based in southeast Michigan or the Grand Rapids area. ICE detainees cannot have property dropped off or mailed to the facility — property must be dropped off at the Detroit ICE office, highlighting the geographic disconnect.
Heatmap Signals
Score 97 with 5 signal types: igsa (3), 287g-agreement (2), county-fight (1), facility (2), budget-distress (1). The budget-distress signal suggests the county may be financially dependent on ICE revenue, a common pattern in rural detention counties.