Department of Homeland Security documents – published this week on a government database – reveal new details about a potential immigration detention facility in Marana.
According to the notice, ICE intends to award a contract to Management & Training Corporation, a private firm that operates five immigration detention facilities across the Southwest.
The DHS notice includes an 86-page document, offering glimpses into how the detention center would operate. Still, many details remain unclear. One document describes a detention center that would hold “approximately 513 male detainees,” while another describes a center with capacity for 775 people. DHS also describes administrative and support space for “ICE staff of approximately 31 employees,” though it’s not clear how many MTC employees would work at the center.
ICE did not immediately respond to inquiries from AZPM seeking clarification on the center’s detention capacity and the contract’s timeline.
Reached Friday, a spokesperson for Management & Training Corporation said an agreement with ICE has not been finalized.
“There is still a formal process ahead, and no final contract has been signed,” the MTC spokesperson said.
Project Salt Box, an online data initiative that tracks projects from DHS and other agencies, first reported on the public notice.
Pima supervisors, Marana council take different approaches to possible ICE facility##
As the contract between ICE and MTC hangs in the balance, local leaders are reacting differently to the possible agreement. Pima County Supervisor Jen Allen, a Democrat whose district includes Marana, called the contract “a tragic development” in a statement Thursday.
Earlier this month, the Pima County Board of Supervisors passed a resolution opposing the detention center 4-1. At the time, county officials acknowledged certain limitations in barring a detention facility, and said they were exploring more effective legal channels to block the center from opening.
"We will watch this facility like a hawk and continue to look for every possible way to shut it down," Allen said Thursday.
The nonpartisan Marana Town Council has taken a different approach in recent months.
Council members have not introduced a measure opposing a detention facility.
“We will not be putting forth a resolution, a proposition, or any other document,” Marana Vice Mayor Roxanne Ziegler reiterated last week at a council meeting, after hearing more than an hour of public comment.
In response to a string of residents’ requests for intervention, council members have said local proclamations are ineffective and that the town lacks authority to prohibit a detention center in a proper zoning area.
“They’re a private business,” Councilmember Patrick Cavanaugh said of MTC. “They have a right to be here. Just like anybody out there wants to open up a coffee shop in Marana. And somebody doesn’t like to drink coffee, and they put up a big fight. We can’t tell someone, ‘you cannot make a living.’”
At the same Feb. 17 meeting, Cavanaugh noted that he was “hoping” MTC would decide not to build a detention center in the town.
Reached Thursday, town officials confirmed they had recently learned of the recent DHS notice, which does not name the Town of Marana as a party in the contract.
“While this matter is a transaction between the federal government and MTC that the Town of Marana is not a party to, we have maintained a longstanding working relationship with MTC,” a town spokesperson said in a statement.
A regular town council meeting is slated for next Tuesday, though no agenda item addresses the possible detention center.
MTC: A years-long history in Arizona##
Management & Training Corporation, or MTC, has a years-long history in Arizona.
The site of the prospective detention center — an expanse of land near the Marana Regional Airport — was once a private prison operated by MTC through a contract with Arizona’s Department of Corrections. The minimum security prison held approximately 500 male inmates.
At the end of 2023, Gov. Katie Hobbs ended the state’s contract with MTC, citing financial reasons. That decision shuttered the facility.
In July of 2025, however, MTC purchased the property from the Arizona Department of Administration, public records show.
In MTC's statement to AZPM Friday, the company pointed to its past history with Marana.
“If an agreement is finalized, our focus will remain on restoring good local jobs, supporting the Marana economy, and operating the facility with high standards of safety, professionalism, and dignity,” the statement noted.
In 2015, Gov. Doug Ducey terminated a separate agreement with MTC after riots broke out in a Kingman prison operated by the private firm. A state-led review reported that the prison was understaffed, that inmates held hunger strikes, and that employees were “poorly paid,” KJZZ reported at the time.
