Update, Oct. 8, 2026
A temporary detention structure planned for the federal immigration center in Buffalo, N.Y., will hold up to 100 people of all security levels in double bunks, according to a document posted Wednesday to SAM.gov, the federal contracting website.
The document explains why ICE is giving the work to Akima Infrastructure Protection without competition. While it does not mention women or tents, it involves the same contract, the same company and temporary housing at the same center as the tent facility for detained women that Project Salt Box reported on Sept. 30.
The structure will have its own water, sewage and electrical systems and will not connect to the existing building unless the government approves. It will include a separate medical unit, and Akima will choose where to place it inside the center’s secure perimeter.
ICE wrote that it needs more detention beds in New York because state and local detention space and cooperation with local jails have changed. The document does not name New York’s Local Cops, Local Crimes Act, which took effect Aug. 25 and bars counties from holding people for immigration authorities.
ICE called the structure a temporary measure while it puts “longer-term solutions” in place in the Buffalo area, and wrote that it expects to buy future detention space there in a different way. The new work runs for about three years. The agency also wrote that keeping the work inside the federally owned perimeter would let it carry out its mission “without undue regulatory interference.”
The document does not say what the longer-term solutions are. On Sept. 20, DHS signed a contract worth up to $1.5 billion with Rapid Deployment Inc., a company based in Mobile, Ala., to design and build at the Batavia center over five years, Project Salt Box reported. ICE has not ordered any work or committed any money under that contract, according to federal contracting records.
ICE posted a notice on Aug. 27 saying it planned to give Akima the work without competition and gave other companies one day to respond, and none did.
All dollar amounts in the document are redacted.
The Department of Homeland Security will pay Akima Infrastructure Protection, which runs migrant detention at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, $7.2 million to build a tent facility for detained women near Buffalo, N.Y., after the state barred county jails from holding people for immigration authorities.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, part of the department, added the money Tuesday to Akima’s work at the Buffalo Service Processing Center in Batavia, according to a federal contracting notice reviewed by Project Salt Box.
The record says the money is for “the establishment of a soft-sided tent facility for housing female aliens.”
The money was added to an existing $9.4 million order ICE signed in July for routine detention and transportation services at the center.
The contracting record does not say how many women the tent camp will hold, where on the property it will be built, or when construction will begin.
ICE uses “soft-sided” to describe tent-style detention camps, which it has increasingly favored over permanent buildings. The largest, Camp East Montana at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas, consists of large canvas tents on gravel and can hold up to 5,000 people.
Akima Infrastructure Protection is one of several companies under Akima, a federal contractor owned by NANA Regional Corp., an Alaska Native corporation. Another Akima company provided guards at Camp East Montana until this year. The family of a Cuban detainee whose death there was ruled a homicide is suing that company and NANA, alleging the guards killed him.
New York’s Local Cops, Local Crimes Act, which bars counties from holding people for immigration authorities, took effect Aug. 25. Homeland Security officials told New York Focus in July that the Batavia expansion was needed because of state laws barring counties from contracting with ICE to house detainees.
In August, ICE said it planned to add a temporary structure for up to 100 detainees at Batavia, Project Salt Box reported. It is not clear whether that structure is part of the tent camp.
The Department of Homeland Security, ICE, Akima, and Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday.
Does the contract require that the tents be heated? From Google AI: “ The average nighttime (low) temperature in Buffalo, New York, during December ranges from 31°F at the beginning of the month down to 23°F by the end of the month, according to climate records from the Weather Spark Airport Data.”
Where are their children. Are all of they undocumented, or just some. Worked 12 years in Houston in an education foundation for HS girls trying to make sure they were being given education opportunities like my three daughters until Texas became a cruel anti-immigrant state.