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South Texas ICE Processing Center — Pearsall TX (GEO Group)

Frio, TX FIPS 48163
1,904
Bed capacity
Operator: GEO Group

Overview

The South Texas ICE Processing Center (STIPC), formerly the Pearsall Immigration Detention Center, is a 1,904-bed GEO Group-operated ICE detention facility in Pearsall, Frio County, Texas — roughly 50 miles southwest of San Antonio along the I-35 corridor. It is one of the largest dedicated immigration detention facilities in Texas and a core node of the South Texas detention network (with Webb County/Laredo, Dilley, and the Rio Grande Valley facilities).

Frio County scores 123 on the detention-pipeline heatmap (ice-contract:31, igsa:16) and had no fight or facility file before this entry.

Key Details

  • Address: 566 Veterans Drive, Pearsall, TX 78061
  • Operator: GEO Group (acquired the facility in 2005 from Correctional Services Corporation, which opened it in May 2005)
  • Capacity: 1,904 detainees, mixed security, men and women
  • ICE inspections: Feb 4-6, 2025; Feb 10-12, 2026
  • Contract: GEO Group dedicated IGSA, contract no. 70CDCR20D00000012 (multiple modifications through 2025-2026)

Why It Matters

STIPC is a high-volume removal-pipeline facility that has drawn a “growing chorus of complaints” from attorneys, advocates, and Democratic lawmakers over inadequate medical care, rationed/poor-quality food, prolonged detention beyond federal limits, and systemic obstacles blocking detainees from qualified legal counsel. As ICE pushes toward a 100,000-bed national target backed by $45B in new funding, existing dedicated facilities like Pearsall are being run at high throughput — and the death and conditions record here is the early-warning signal.

Detainee Death — Kai Yin Wong (October 2025)

  • Kai Yin Wong, a 63-year-old Chinese national held at STIPC pending removal, died October 25, 2025 at Methodist Metropolitan Hospital in San Antonio.
  • On Oct 11, 2025, EMS transported Wong from STIPC to Frio Regional Hospital in Pearsall for shortness of breath and weakness, then airlifted him to a San Antonio hospital for heart failure, possible pneumonia, and abdominal fluid.
  • He underwent mitral valve replacement surgery on Oct 23; complications (cardiac tamponade) led to death two days later.
  • His death is documented in an ICE Detainee Death Report and is one of multiple deaths counted in Texas’s record 2025 toll (~8 deaths, ~28% of the national total — the deadliest year in ICE detention in two decades).

Regional / Statewide Context

  • Pearsall appears on internal ICE planning documents listing camps and processing sites across Texas (El Paso, Port Isabel, Pearland, Dilley, Hutto), part of the agency’s 2025-2026 push to roughly double national bed capacity.
  • Frio County, with population under 100,000, is below the SB 8 mandatory-287(g) threshold (counties >100k must enter 287(g) agreements by Dec 1, 2026), but it hosts one of the state’s largest dedicated detention footprints regardless.

Sources

Edit Report issue County profile
Last updated: May 27, 2026