Overview

The Port Isabel Service Processing Center (PIDC) near Los Fresnos in Cameron County is an ICE-owned Service Processing Center holding roughly 1,200 detainees with throughput of about 9,500 detainees per year. It is the detention hub of the lower Rio Grande Valley / Brownsville corridor and co-located with the Port Isabel (Los Fresnos) immigration court. Service operations (detention, food service, limited transportation) have been run under contract by Ahtna Support and Training Services.

Cameron County scores 112 on the detention-pipeline heatmap (igsa:28, ice-contract:31) and had no fight or facility file before this entry.

Key Details

• Address: 27991 Buena Vista Blvd, Los Fresnos, TX 78566
• Type: ICE-owned Service Processing Center (not a private prison; operated via service contract)
• Capacity: ~1,200; ~9,500 detainees processed annually
• Co-located: EOIR Port Isabel / Los Fresnos Immigration Court
• Contract operator: Ahtna Support and Training Services

Why It Matters

Port Isabel is one of the oldest and largest ICE-owned detention facilities in Texas, with a long-documented record of detention-standards violations (DHS OIG findings) and a renewed 2025-2026 scrutiny-and-closure-call cycle. It now sits inside ICE’s national expansion: an active Request for Information (RFI) on SAM.gov seeks sources for detention, food service, and limited transportation at Port Isabel — market research that typically precedes a re-procurement or capacity expansion. Internal ICE planning documents list Port Isabel alongside El Paso, Pearsall, Pearland, Dilley, and Hutto as Texas detention sites in the push toward 100,000 national beds.

Detainee Death — Randall Gamboa Esquivel (2025)

• Randall Gamboa Esquivel, a 52-year-old Costa Rican (Pérez Zeledón), entered the US at the border in December 2024 in good health, was first held at the Webb County Detention Center in Laredo, then transferred to Port Isabel.
• By July 7, 2025, medical records show he was diagnosed with ~10 conditions including sepsis as the primary diagnosis; weeks later a doctor described him as unable to “move or respond,” in a “catatonic” / vegetative state.
• In September 2025 ICE deported him to San José, Costa Rica aboard an air ambulance in a vegetative state; family says they were given no warning.
• He died October 26, 2025, five weeks after deportation. His family alleges medical negligence during ICE custody led to his death.
• The case links two of the highest-heat South Texas detention counties — Webb (initial custody) and Cameron (deterioration) — through a single removal pipeline, and exemplifies the “deport-the-dying” pattern advocates flagged amid ICE’s October 2025 halt of payments to detention medical contractors.

Statewide Context

Cameron County (pop. >100k) is subject to Texas SB 8, requiring counties over 100,000 to enter 287(g) agreements by Dec 1, 2026 under threat of suit by the state attorney general. Port Isabel anchors federal detention in the county independent of that local-cooperation mandate.

Sources

• ICE: Port Isabel Service Processing Center facility page
• SAM.gov: Port Isabel Detention Center Request for Information (RFI)
• Daily Beast: Family slams ICE for deporting Costa Rican man in vegetative state (Jan 2026)
• Latin Times: Family says medical neglect led to death of Costa Rican man deported by ICE (2026)
• WOLA: U.S.-Mexico Border Update — detention deaths, December data (Jan 2026)
• HSToday: OIG inspection finds violations of detention standards at Port Isabel SPC
• Global Detention Project: Port Isabel Service Processing Center