Draft Agreement Calls Alexandria 528-Bed Family Facility ICE Detention While Its Pamphlet Says Non-Detained

ABC News reported on October 2, 2026 that the 528-bed facility will house families with children, unaccompanied minors, and single adult females as they await removal inside renovated former Air Force barracks at England Airpark. A communications manager for EEIDD told ABC News the facility could start receiving people “within the next week or two”.

The statement against the document: a pamphlet distributed during one of the board meetings and obtained by ABC News said migrant families will be held in a non-detained setting at the facility. A draft of the Intergovernmental Service Agreement between DHS and the EEIDD, obtained by the National Immigration Project and reviewed by ABC News, said one of the purposes of the agreement is to provide “ICE alien detention in a secure environment under the authority of the Immigration and Nationality Act”.

Immigrant rights groups and attorneys denounced the facility and raised concerns that the property was contaminated with PFAS; that concern is advocates’ claim, not an agency record. DHS and EEIDD did not provide the final signed agreement. Earlier entry: 2026-06-30–ice-contracts-lasalle-family-foundation-528-bed-alexandria-staging-facility.