1. United States
2. Ill.
3. Letter

I am writing to urge you to take immediate action to halt the rapid expansion of ICE detention facilities being built through the WEXMAC TITUS program. This repurposed Navy logistics program is allowing ICE to bypass normal oversight and public accountability while spending billions of taxpayer dollars on a massive detention infrastructure. WEXMAC TITUS was originally designed by the Naval Supply Systems Command for international disaster response. In 2024, the United States was added as region 27, allowing DHS to fast-track domestic contractors to build and operate detention facilities in days instead of months. Since early September 2025, 135 contractors have been awarded contracts, with the total value jumping from $10 billion to $55 billion in early January, a $45 billion increase. According to Project Salt Box, ICE has already purchased 11 warehouses for $697.4 million, creating 34,000 new detention beds in locations including Surprise, Arizona; El Paso and San Antonio, Texas; Social Circle and Oakwood, Georgia; Hagerstown, Maryland; Hamburg and Tremont, Pennsylvania; Romulus, Michigan; Chester, New York; and Lebanon, Tennessee. The Trump administration's stated goal is to detain more than 80,000 people, with Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons comparing deportations to "Prime, but with human beings." The human cost is already devastating. At Dilley Detention Center near San Antonio, families endure squalid conditions for months. Representative Joaquin Castro confirmed that a two-month-old baby named Juan Nicolás remains detained there with bronchitis and was unresponsive at one point. ProPublica has published letters from children describing hunger, illness, and contaminated water. This program treats immigration enforcement as a national security operation rather than civil enforcement, reducing oversight and public visibility. I urge you to demand congressional hearings on WEXMAC TITUS, introduce legislation to restrict its use for domestic detention, and work to defund this $55 billion expansion. Our communities deserve transparency and accountability, not a shadow detention system built through military contracting loopholes.