A lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union shows Immigration and Customs Enforcement may expand immigration detention facilities in the Rio Grande Valley.

The lawsuit was initially filed in September 2024 to obtain records regarding the agency’s potential plan to expand detention facilities.

An ACLU attorney told Channel 5 News that the organization believes for-profit facilities in Raymondville and La Villa could be expanded to hold more migrants. 

Eunice Cho, senior staff attorney at the ACLU’s National Prison Project, said it could be part of an effort to carry out the mass deportations promised by President-Elect Donald Trump. 

“You can't have mass detentions without a significant expansion of ICE detention capacity,” Cho said.

Documents obtained and shared with Channel 5 News by the ACLU through their lawsuit against ICE indicate plans to add more beds to facilities in Raymondville and La Villa. 

“We want to get a sense of which detention facilities are trying to be the ones to hold people during these mass deportation campaigns,” Cho said.

Cho said some of the facilities they believe could be expanded have a concerning past. 

“Several other facilities, including in Texas, have been the subject of investigation for poor conditions — including the Willacy County jail in Raymondville,” Cho said.

The ACLU said these ICE expansions plans are not set in stone, but Cho said they want ICE to be more transparent about possible expansions — especially with private prisons. 

“We're hoping to learn more about what private prison companies and other corporate entities are proposing to ICE for detention,” Cho said, adding that the ACLU requested more documents to clarify what facilities could be expanded. 

Watch the video above for the full story.