The Trump administration is exploring the construction of an immigration detention facility at Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, according to internal government emails obtained by KQED.
The emails, dated early April, reveal that federal officials have evaluated Travis Air Force Base and other military installations as potential sites for immigration detention and deportations overseen by the Department of Homeland Security, KQED reported Tuesday. The communications indicate a coordinated effort between the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security to fast-track the plan for approval by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. They do not detail the proposed facility’s size, layout, or capacity.
The revelations come amid a cascade of immigration-related executive actions in the Trump administration’s first 100 days, including the invocation of an obscure wartime law to deport migrants, as part of an effort to remove a reported 1 million people from the country.
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesperson confirmed that ICE is exploring the possibility of increasing detention capacity in California, but did not confirm whether Travis was under consideration.
“While we cannot confirm individual pre-decisional conversations, we can confirm that ICE is exploring all options in California to meet its current and future detention requirements, which include new detention facilities and possible support from partner agencies,” the agency wrote in a statement.
“It’s outrageous and inappropriate for the Trump Administration to use Travis Air Force Base as an immigration detention facility,” wrote Rep. John Garamendi, who represents the district where the air base is located and serves as a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee.
Travis Air Force Base plays “a critical role in our national security, providing transportation for personnel and materiel around the world,” Garamendi added. “Converting Travis into an immigration facility would undermine its vital national security mission.”
The apparent interest in using military facilities for ICE detention points to a broader plan to militarize immigration enforcement as the Trump administration seeks to expand detention and removal operations.
In January, the Trump administration announced plans to add 30,000 beds for immigrants at Guantánamo Bay, the U.S. naval base in Cuba. In March, the New York Times reported that the government had returned the 40 people it had previously flown there to the United States.
In March, U.S. Secretary of the Army Daniel P. Driscoll announced plans to begin construction of an immigration deportation site at Fort Bliss in Texas. In April, the Trump administration cancelled a $3.8 billion contract to build a detention camp at the military site just days after issuing it, ProPublica reported.
In an emailed statement to Open Vallejo, Department of Defense spokesperson Kingsley Wilson said the agency “has no announcements regarding additional land or facilities support to DHS beyond what was previously announced for Fort Bliss.”
The communications about Travis Air Force Base were revealed the same day that the California Department of Justice published a 165-page report finding that people detained in California’s six immigration detention centers are receiving inadequate mental health care.
California holds the third-largest immigration detention population in the country, according to the most recently available data from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University.
