NORTH CAROLINA (July 23, 2026) — Internal documents obtained by The New York Times indicate that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) plans to reopen Rivers Correctional Facility for immigration detention by the end of the year. Although contract negotiations remain ongoing, the approximately 1,400-bed facility in Winton (Hertford County), northeastern North Carolina, would become the state's first ICE detention center and one of the largest on the East Coast. If reopened, it could substantially increase ICE's detention capacity across North Carolina and the surrounding region.
On January 29, 2026, the ACLU of North Carolina published records obtained through litigation detailing proposals submitted to ICE for potential immigration detention centers in North Carolina, including Rivers. The records were released following a lawsuit filed on October 1, 2025, by ACLU-NC, the ACLU, and the ACLU of Virginia, after ICE failed to respond to an August 2025 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. That request sought records related to ICE’s May 28, 2025, request for information seeking “available detention facilities” in areas covered by ICE’s Washington, D.C. Enforcement and Removal Operations Field Office, which includes Virginia and parts of North Carolina.
These records corroborated earlier reporting that GEO Group, the private, for-profit owner and operator of Rivers, was prioritizing reopening the currently idle facility as an immigration detention center.
Before closing in 2021, Rivers operated as a federal prison with a history of violence, high rates of contraband, and sexual abuse. This history, combined with the well-documented pattern of dangerous detention conditions under the second Trump administration, raises serious and evidence-based concerns that reopening Rivers would lead to further harm. The ACLU has long criticized for-profit prison corporations for profiting from human suffering and operating outside the purview of public oversight and accountability.
GEO Group also runs Delaney Hall in New Jersey, which drew national attention after immigrant detainees launched a hunger strike to protest inhumane conditions, including spoiled food, medical neglect, and mistreatment. Outside the facility, ICE met peaceful protestors with violence. Meanwhile, a GEO Group executive has characterized litigation challenging facility conditions as unconstitutional, while the company reports record profits.
ACLU-NC vehemently opposes reopening Rivers for immigration detention and condemns ICE’s secretive expansion of deadly immigration detention. Deaths in detention are at a record high while reckless ICE agents are abusing and killing people in our communities. On July 16, a GEO Group employee shot a protester outside an ICE detention facility in Aurora, Colorado days after ICE agents fatally shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Texas and Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Maine. In North Carolina, ICE and CBP act with a similar disregard for people’s rights and rely on dangerous tactics. In response, ACLU-NC is challenging warrantless immigration arrests through a class action lawsuit, has filed federal damages claims on behalf of a wrongfully detained North Carolinian, and continues to pursue other legal actions.
"We deserve better than this. The people of Hertford County deserve jobs with dignity that support long-term investment in our rural communities, not jobs that rely on the suffering of vulnerable communities. We need transparency from our government, not behind-the-scenes negotiations pledging billions of taxpayer dollars to expand a deadly detention and mass deportation campaign that fails to address the real needs of North Carolinians," said Liz Barber, Director of Policy and Advocacy at ACLU of North Carolina. "We must build systems grounded in justice, systems that don't prioritize lining the pockets of millionaires and advancing a profit-over-people agenda. Everyone should be able to walk our streets without fear of being kidnapped or even killed by officers who are purportedly there to protect us."
ACLU-NC will continue to advocate against ICE detention expansion, prepare for the potential impact on our communities, and share more information as it becomes available.
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