Overview

Conroe, TX (Montgomery County seat) hosts two large GEO Group-operated ICE facilities, making Montgomery County one of the highest-capacity ICE detention hubs in Texas:

• Montgomery Processing Center — a company-owned GEO facility built under a 10-year ICE contract announced April 2017 (opened Q4 2018). Originally 1,000 beds; expanded by 314 beds in 2019 to reach current contract capacity of 1,314 beds. Processes roughly 400–500 migrants weekly, functioning as a major intake/processing hub, not just long-term holding.
• Joe Corley Processing Center (a.k.a. Joe Corley Detention Facility) — opened 2008, originally under an Intergovernmental Service Agreement (IGSA) with Montgomery County; GEO later closed acquisition of the 1,287-bed facility for approximately $65 million (annualized revenue ~$27M). Still functions under IGSA structure, holding both ICE civil detainees and U.S. Marshals Service federal detainees.

Both facilities are distinct from the county-operated Montgomery County Jail, which holds pretrial/local detainees and is the site of the county’s 287(g) Jail Enforcement Model program (see companion note on 287(g)/SB8).

Key Details

GEO’s Detention Reengineering Initiative — acquisition target:

• Montgomery Processing Center is named as one of eight facilities under consideration in ICE’s “Detention Reengineering Initiative” — an agency-wide pivot from converting warehouses to purchasing existing turnkey private facilities outright, shielding them from state oversight and some abuse-related litigation. The other five GEO-operated facilities under consideration: Northwest ICE Processing Center (Tacoma, WA), Mesa Verde ICE Processing Center (Bakersfield, CA), Central Louisiana Processing Center (Jena, LA), and Aurora ICE Processing Center (Aurora, CO). ICE’s stated target is to operate 34 owned facilities (16 “processing centers” + others) by September 30, 2026; as of the reporting date ICE had already spent over $700M purchasing 9 of 24 planned facilities. (American Immigration Council, Project Salt Box, May 2026)
• Separately, ICE posted a federal procurement notice (May 8, 2026) seeking a caretaker contractor to maintain “mothballed” warehouse facilities under a “Temporary Operations and Maintenance” contract valued at $10–20M, running through May 25, 2027, as the broader warehouse-conversion push has stalled in court elsewhere. It is unconfirmed from current reporting whether Montgomery/Conroe sites are included in that specific maintenance-contract scope — only that Montgomery Processing Center is named among the eight facilities ICE is evaluating for purchase.

Detainee deaths (both facilities, within one month of each other, late 2025–early 2026):

• Pete Sumalo Montejo, 72, Filipino national, died December 5, 2025, after cardiac arrest, having been last held at Montgomery Processing Center; cause listed as anemia, septic shock, and pneumonia. (ICE detainee death report)
• Luis Gustavo Nunez Caceres, 42, Honduran national, arrested November 17, 2025 in Houston, cycled through both Montgomery Processing Center and Joe Corley Processing Center within a week of arrest, hospitalized December 23, 2025 for complications of congenital heart failure, died January 5, 2026 at an HCA hospital in Conroe. Advocacy reporting (Andrew Free/Detention Kills) notes at least 45 immigrant deaths tied to GEO facilities nationally and that 4 of 7 December 2025 ICE deaths occurred at GEO-run sites.

Oversight:

• ICE’s Office of Detention Oversight conducted a compliance inspection of Montgomery Processing Center April 28–30, 2026.

Why This Matters

This is the single highest-signal county on the national heatmap (score 81) precisely because it combines every structural risk factor the pipeline tracks in one place: two large private-operator facilities (one IGSA-originated, one company-built) run by the same contractor, a sheriff already integrated into 287(g) JEM enforcement, and — newly confirmed here — explicit inclusion in GEO/ICE’s national Detention Reengineering Initiative to convert leased/contracted capacity into ICE-owned turnkey facilities, which would insulate Montgomery’s beds from state-level oversight and litigation exposure. Two in-custody deaths within a month at the same two facilities, one involving a detainee shuttled between both sites in his first week of custody, is a direct data point on medical-care conditions at exactly the facilities positioned for expanded, oversight-shielded federal ownership.

Sources

• Montgomery Processing Center — ICE facility page
• Joe Corley Processing Center — ICE facility page
• The GEO Group Closes Acquisition of 1,287-Bed Joe Corley Detention Center in Montgomery County, Texas — GEO Group investor release
• The GEO Group Announces 314-Bed Contract Capacity Expansion at Montgomery Processing Center in Texas — Business Wire (2019)
• ICE’s Warehouse Purchases Herald New Model for Immigration Detention — American Immigration Council
• ICE Moves to Pay Contractors to Maintain Mothballed Warehouses — Project Salt Box (May 2026)
• MONTEJO, Pete Sumalo — Detainee Death Report (ICE)
• The ICE Death You Won’t Hear About Today — Andrew Free / Detention Kills (Jan 2026)
• Illegal alien in ICE custody passes away at Houston-area hospital — ICE press release
• 2026 Montgomery ICE Processing Center, Conroe, TX — ODO inspection notice, Apr. 28-30, 2026 (ICE)