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Over 4,500 detention beds. Permanently under federal ownership. In the heart of sanctuary state territory.
This is checkmate.
They pressured local governments to refuse cooperation. The Ninth Circuit blocked the most aggressive attempt, but Sacramento kept finding new ways to make federal immigration enforcement slower, harder, and more expensive.
They bought the buildings.
The activists can’t threaten CoreCivic’s contracts when CoreCivic no longer owns the property. Every legal and political lever California Democrats spent years building to obstruct ICE just got pulled out of their hands in a single transaction.
The DHS spokesperson said it plainly: unlike in Florida and Oklahoma, ICE cannot rely on California’s sanctuary politicians for detention space. So instead of begging for cooperation that was never coming, the administration used funding from the One Big Beautiful Bill to buy permanent capacity that Sacramento cannot touch.
When his double life became public, he resigned before he could be fired and claimed Trump “pushed him out. ” It’s the perfect snapshot of California’s anti-ICE politics: performative outrage on the outside, quiet compliance on the inside, and zero accountability for either.
Senator Alex Padilla immediately vowed to keep demanding “transparency and humane conditions” — which is California Democrat for “we lost and we’re furious about it. ” His press releases don’t change who owns the buildings. The deed is already signed.
He’s getting federal detention centers he can’t close, can’t regulate, and can’t touch.
That’s not just a policy win. That’s a message — delivered in the language Sacramento understands best.