Nevada Southern Detention Center — CoreCivic private prison in Pahrump, Nye County · NV · 1,064 total / 250 ICE contract beds · CoreCivic

Overview

The Nevada Southern Detention Center in Pahrump, NV (Nye County) is a 1,064-bed CoreCivic facility that serves as the state’s primary ICE detention center. It holds a mix of ICE detainees, Federal Bureau of Prisons inmates, and U.S. Marshals prisoners. The ICE contract allows a maximum of 250 detainees per day, but the facility has been dramatically over that limit throughout 2025.

Overcrowding Crisis

April 2025: Exceeded ICE contract capacity by 40+ people per day
Peak FY2025: 462 ICE detainees — over 200 above the 250-bed contract cap
November 2025: 461 ICE detainees (up from 365 in September)
Ranked among the 10 most overcrowded immigration facilities nationally out of 180 ICE detention centers
For context: facility held only 163 ICE detainees at end of 2023

Tent Expansion Proposal

ICE has contemplated building a “soft-side” facility (tent-based structure) at the site that would add 450 beds, more than doubling current ICE detention capacity in Nevada. CoreCivic’s managing director for proposal development emailed plans to ICE on June 21, 2025 in response to an ICE request for information. DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin told media the planning documents were “outdated and hadn’t been approved.” As of June 5, 2026, the tent expansion status remains unclear and unconfirmed; CoreCivic has said it has several “soft-side” contracts in the works without naming locations/timing, and no Pahrump expansion contract award has been confirmed.

Conditions Complaints

Over 30 reports in 2025 documenting medical negligence, racial discrimination, and verbal assault
Detainees lack reliable access to immigration attorneys or resources
Federal investigation prompted by complaints
Rep. Steven Horsford was denied a facility visit
CoreCivic entered a new contract in February 2025 to increase Nevada facility capacity

Sedano Navarro Lawsuit — Detainee Loses Eye (filed Feb 2026)

A lawsuit filed in February 2026 in the Eighth Judicial District Court (Clark County) alleges catastrophic medical neglect at the facility. Jose Braulio Sedano Navarro, a lawful permanent resident (green card holder) with schizophrenia, was placed in ICE custody at the Pahrump facility in early June 2025. The suit alleges:

He repeatedly asked staff for his antipsychotic medication, warning he was hearing voices and hallucinating about demons; nurses allegedly ignored or failed to log his escalating complaints.
He was placed in a segregation unit roughly two weeks after arrival.
He attempted suicide on Aug. 3, 2025; later that evening, while on suicide watch, he gouged out his right eye and is now permanently blind in that eye.
He was treated at University Medical Center in Las Vegas on Aug. 5, 2025.
Two independent medical experts concluded his condition would not have deteriorated to eye loss had he received proper treatment.

Claims: negligence, medical malpractice, and infliction of emotional distress, seeking compensatory and punitive damages. This is the most concrete documented harm case among the 2025-2026 conditions complaints.

Congressional Oversight (2025-2026)

August 2025: Rep. Steven Horsford (NV-04) conducted his first oversight visit after initially being denied entry.
February 6, 2026: Horsford conducted a second oversight visit, citing concerns over overcrowding, detainee medical care, use-of-force, and the proposed expansion. He tied his concerns to the FY2026 reconciliation law’s roughly $75 billion ICE funding expansion, which he said lacks oversight guardrails.
Senators Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen have called for a DHS Inspector General investigation into conditions at the facility.

Financial Context

Nearby Nye County Detention Center terminated its own ICE contract in November 2024, citing unsustainable costs — leaving this CoreCivic facility as the dominant ICE detention site in southern Nevada.

Regional Pipeline (Salt Lake City)

The facility is the primary downstream detention destination for ICE’s Salt Lake Field Office, which covers Nevada, Utah, Montana, and Idaho. Reporting indicates 1,000+ detainee transfers from the Salt Lake City area into Nevada in 2025. ICE’s planned Salt Lake City “mega-center” (a $145M warehouse, capacity reported up to ~10,000, paused under DHS review as of April 2026) could eventually replace Pahrump as the field office’s central detention hub. See note: salt-lake-city-ice-megacenter-nevada-pipeline.

Detention Pipeline

Nevada Southern Detention Center — CoreCivic private prison in Pahrump, Nye County