Big Spring Schedules Three Nights of Votes on a 10-Year ICE Detention Deal

Big Spring's city council has posted special meetings for three nights in a row this week to consider a 10-year federal immigration detention agreement. It would reopen two idle prisons in town, with The GEO Group running them.

The agenda for Wednesday, Oct. 28, posted Oct. 22, lists an Intergovernmental Service Agreement, No. 70CDCR27DIG000005, between the city and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, part of the Department of Homeland Security. The agreement covers "detention, detention-related, transportation, and stationary guard services" at what the agenda calls the Big Spring Complex. That complex includes the Cedar Hill Facility at 3711 Wright Ave. and the Flightline Correctional Facility at 2001 Rickabaugh Drive. The term would run from Nov. 1, 2026, through Oct. 31, 2036.

The same item would acknowledge ICE's approval of GEO as the city's subcontractor and service provider. It also addresses runway and taxiway improvements at McMahon-Wrinkle Airport. A second item would approve a subcontract with GEO covering "development, construction, management, operation, and support services" for both facilities.

Identical agendas are posted for Thursday, Oct. 29 and Friday, Oct. 30. All three meetings start at 5:30 p.m. in council chambers at 307 E. Fourth St. The agendas don't say why the item was posted three times. No supporting documents with the agreement's dollar figures or terms were posted with them.

Two idle prisons

GEO's own website lists its Big Spring Facility at 3711 Wright Ave. at 924 beds and the Flightline facility at 1,452 beds. It lists the client for both as "Idle." In its quarterly filing for the period ending March 31, 2026, GEO listed both among its idled facilities, idled in 2021. It put their net carrying values at about $31.2 million and $39.1 million.

This has been a long time coming. In August 2022, the council approved a memorandum of understanding with GEO to pursue an ICE contract for Flightline, NewsWest 9 reported. The station said hundreds of people lost their jobs after President Biden's executive order to stop using private prisons.

"If GEO can get a contract with ICE, then we'll be able to get these facilities back up and going," District 6 Council Member Maury Smith told the station. He said the work would bring "about half of what we did have here" in jobs. Smith also acknowledged that "there's a lot of citizens that wish they were all gone."

In July, the council discussed a possible amendment to its GEO contract involving a third GEO facility, known as Airpark. Mayor Robert Moore told KBest Media that "if they're able to enter into a contract with us, they've agreed to demolish that facility at their expense, including any environmental cleanup." The station reported that no final action had been taken and that negotiations were expected to continue. The October agendas do not mention Airpark.

A Howard County historical marker in Big Spring. Photo: Nicolas Henderson / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.

What residents should ask

Enforcing the nation's immigration laws is a legitimate federal job, and detention beds are part of doing it. A West Texas town that lost hundreds of jobs has good reason to want those buildings full again. Big Spring's leaders have said plainly that jobs are the point.

But a 10-year contract that hands two prisons to a private operator under federal oversight is a big decision. Residents deserve to read it before the council votes. How many people would be held, how many local jobs would be created, what the city would be paid, what the city's own obligations would be, and what the airport work would cost should all be public. Those who will be held there are made in God's image too, and the standards of care in the contract matter.

The council also meets in regular session at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday. That agenda includes an emergency-ambulance agreement with Howard County, a construction-manager-at-risk bid for a new community center, and a closed session on "legal issues arising from a network incident." The detention agreement is not on Tuesday's agenda.

Tuesday's agenda includes a public comment period. The three special-meeting agendas list council input but no public comment item. All four meetings can be watched on the city's Channel 17 through Optimum or at mybigspring.com.

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