Activists are planning to protest Saturday at the former Federal Correctional Institution Dublin against the Trump administration’s possible plan to house immigrant detainees there.
The All Out Against ICE protest of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is scheduled from noon to 2 p.m.
Both U.S. senators from California — Democrats Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff — spoke out this week against the possible plan, as did local U.S. Reps. Mark DeSaulnier, D-Walnut Creek, and Zoe Lofgren, D-San Jose.
The shuttered prison is in DeSaulnier’s congressional district.
In a letter addressed to the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, the acting director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, and the acting director of ICE, DeSaulnier and Lofgren stressed the prison’s hazardous conditions that shut it down last year.
The facility also has an ugly history of inmate physical and sexual abuse by prison officials, including incarcerated immigrants. The representatives said FCI Dublin’s infrastructure isn’t sufficient to hold incarcerated people and urged the administration to abandon any plans to reopen it.
“As you know, BOP formalized the ‘permanent closure’ of FCI Dublin in December 2024,” the congressional reps wrote. “Officials cited critical infrastructure, safety, and environmental deficiencies; an inability to hire and retain sufficient staff; and an intractable culture of sexual abuse and retaliation as reasons for its closure.”
They also said court-ordered independent assessments found hazardous mold and asbestos in living areas in February 2024, confirming years of reports.
Padilla, the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Border Security and Immigration, released a statement Tuesday saying BOP already suffers from years of understaffing, inadequate resources, and crumbling infrastructure.
Padilla cited a Feb. 7 memo from BOP’s Correctional Programs Division directing the policy change.
The Trump administration hasn’t publicly announced any move to house immigrant detainees in FCI Dublin.
An ICE spokesperson didn’t directly address FCI Dublin but didn’t deny ICE is considering using the Dublin facility.
“U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s enhanced enforcement operations and routine daily operations have resulted in a significant number of arrests of criminal aliens that require greater detention capacity. While we cannot confirm individual pre-decisional conversations, we can confirm that ICE is exploring all options to meet its current and future detention requirements,” the spokesperson said.
Padilla joined Schiff and Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, in questioning the memo’s “lack of answers on how to safely manage interactions between civil immigration detainees and incarcerated criminals, how BOP staff will receive sufficient training and resources to manage the civil immigrant detainee population, and whether BOP facilities could meet basic immigration detention standards.”
Saturday’s protest is being sponsored by the Dublin Prison Solidarity Coalition, California Coalition for Women Prisoners, California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice, Dignity Not Detention Coalition, Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity, Tsuru for Solidarity, Kehilla Community Synagogue Immigration Committee, Detention Watch Network, and others, according to the Tri-Valley for America Facebook page.
The groups said ICE already has toured the facility at least twice. It says the protest will be nonviolent, with speeches, music, chants, signs, and no planned arrests.
A flier for the protest says it’s happening at Gleason Drive and Arnold Road in Dublin.