Opinion: There is a better way to house detained migrants

The current administration is making good on one of President Trump’s campaign pledges to carry out mass deportations of foreign nationals residing in the U.S. without proper authorization. The Washington Post has reported that arrests increased from 45,558 to 94,906 in a year-over-year comparison between January 20 and June 11.

While many of those arrested have criminal records, 65% had no conviction, and 93% had no conviction for violence. The executive branch has an obligation to enforce immigration law and regulations, and any administration has the right to decide how best to use its limited resources to secure the border and remove those without authorization.

We are agnostic whether the administration’s apprehension strategy is appropriate or proportional.

However, the administration appears to forget the Golden Rule in law enforcement. Namely, when you arrest a suspect, you become responsible for their physical well-being, including safety, feeding, shelter, and medical care. Instead, the administration has opened a makeshift detainee facility dubbed the “Alligator Alcatraz” in the middle of the Florida Everglades. This former airport and training facility was not originally designed to house the 3,000 detainees it is expected to eventually hold for $411 per day, which comes to about $450 million per year.

The Hill reports that fresh water must be trucked in, mosquitoes run rampant, portable toilets routinely back up, and access to legal counsel is limited. The conditions are so rough that several guards have quit and have spoken out anonymously for fear of retaliation.

To further highlight the reported deplorable conditions, the Catholic bishops in charge of providing chaplains to the holding facility have complained that its remote location makes it hard to transport clergy to the detainees and have described the camp as “evil”.

The administration can do better than mosquito-infested makeshift jails built in a hurricane zone surrounded by alligators and pythons, and the Catholic Church can help. Higher education is experiencing a decline, and no sector is more impacted than rural private colleges. The root cause is a decline in the number of high school graduates due to lower birth rates, along with a decline in the percentage of high school graduates going straight to college, down from 70% in 2016 to 62% in 2022. Since 2020, 45 public or non-profit colleges have closed or announced their closures, and 37 have either merged or announced their mergers with other institutions. These institutions include the University of St. Katherine in California, Cabrini College in Pennsylvania, and schools in almost every state in between.

We recommend that the administration contract with the Catholic Church to use closed Catholic colleges to house detained migrants. Colleges are ideal for this situation because college campuses typically include dormitories, medical clinics, a cafeteria, a chapel, and classroom space, which can be turned into meeting rooms for attorneys and hearing rooms for immigration judges.

This arrangement would also be a financial boon for the Church. If the administration is willing to pay $450 million to house 3,000 migrants in a mosquito-infested swamp, then it should be willing to pay at least as much for quality facilities. The Church could then use these funds to offset the loss of income they once earned from resettling migrants on behalf of the Government. The detainees benefit by receiving higher-quality housing and services.

It would be a rare win for all involved.

If the administration is concerned that payment to the Church for use of these spaces might violate the Establishment Clause, consideration can be made for the use of failed private non-denominational campuses. For example, Cazenovia College in the Finger Lakes of upstate New York closed in December 2022. The New York State Police had been using the campus for training of two trooper classes but will vacate the space as of August 31, 2025. The campus, convenient to SUNY Upstate Medical Center and the Syracuse Airport, would logistically be far less challenging than the Everglades.

In addition, consideration can be given by the Administration for the use of underutilized military facilities, such as Fort Dix. Fort Dix (formally known as Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst) is already used by the Federal Bureau of Prisons to house federal inmates under lower levels of security. Doing so would greatly reduce expenditures for creating new infrastructure when existing facilities remain available.

In short, we believe that the Trump administration should pursue policies that increase efficiency and prudent use of fiscal resources to execute its apprehension strategy of those who remain in the United States without authorization. Substantial numbers of existing former colleges and military bases are available to provide locations for detention facilities, while allowing for better safety, feeding, shelter, medical care, and visits by legal and clergy representatives.

We urge the administration to consider these possibilities before constructing new facilities in remote or inaccessible areas, which will inevitably drive up the costs to the American taxpayer.

Dr. Robert Warren, Radford University
Dr. David Weber, Salisbury University
Dr. Timothy Fogarty, Case Western Reserve University
Dr. Vilson Dushi, Radford University