United States immigration authorities are planning to secure long-term detention and transportation capacity for Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations across Minnesota and four neighboring states, according to an internal planning document reviewed by WIRED.
The document forecasts ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations spending between $20 million and $50 million to secure jail space and establish a privately run transfer hub in Minnesota capable of moving detainees anywhere “within a 400-mile radius.”
The network is forecast to reach beyond Minnesota, where ICE agents are carrying out aggressive raids, into North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, and Nebraska, giving the agency latitude to transfer as many as 1,000 people detained around the Twin Cities at any time up to hundreds of miles away.
The plans were formed ahead of what Minnesota officials and civil rights groups describe as an “unprecedented deployment” and a “federal invasion” in court filings that seek to halt what the US government calls Operation Metro Surge. The operation has sent thousands of armed agents into the Twin Cities and has been marked by fatal use of force, street-level stops, dangerous vehicle interdictions, and mass detentions sweeping up US citizens.
The deployment has sparked repeated protests in Minneapolis and Saint Paul, including marches to downtown hotels where demonstrators said federal agents were staying, and confrontations that have drawn arrests and widespread use of tear gas and chemical irritants. In court, a federal judge set restrictions on federal agents participating in Metro Surge from using force against peaceful protesters and observers. The Trump administration is appealing the ruling.
The backlash has spread well beyond Minnesota after organizers called for an “ICE Out for Good” weekend of action, with more than 1,000 protests and rallies nationwide.
ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The surge came amid months of efforts by ICE to anchor a regional transfer hub in the Upper Midwest, with federal planning documents from last year pointing to a prison in Appleton, Minnesota, as a potential site. Those records outlined a nationwide expansion of detention capacity and a move to mega-facilities that can house a thousand people or more.
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Internal planning and subsequent public reporting in August 2025 placed Appleton’s long-shuttered Prairie Correctional Facility at the center of that push: a ready-made, 1,600-bed prison that could absorb detainees taken into custody across the region. CoreCivic, which owns the facility, acknowledged at the time that it was pursuing federal opportunities, while Appleton officials said no contract was in place.
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