Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for public affairs at the Department of Homeland Security, told Newsmax Wednesday that a new Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in Indiana, dubbed the “Speedway Slammer,” will help turbocharge the agency’s illegal immigrant arrest numbers.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem announced the facility would be “coming soon” as the newest ICE detention center in a post on X on Tuesday. The site in Indiana will reportedly be at the state’s existing Miami Correctional Facility at the Grissom Joint Air Reserve Base, which is about an hour north of Indianapolis and its legendary motor speedway.
“Like ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ [in the Florida Everglades], the ‘Speedway Slammer’ is going to get up and running very quickly,” McLaughlin said on “Wake Up America.” “We’ve been working with Gov. [Mike] Braun and his team – they’ve been fantastic to work with – and we’ve been able to expand this to 1,000 beds. And that’s in large part thanks to that big, beautiful bill that President [Donald] Trump, Secretary Noem, and Congress helped get across the finish line.
“This is essential, those detention beds, to turbocharging our arrest numbers and getting the worst of the worst criminals out of this country. But, like its namesake, ‘Speedway Slammer,’ you’re going to get in there quick, and these illegal aliens will get out of here quick.”
McLaughlin stressed that “no one has to be arrested” by ICE and that “every single illegal alien in this country has a choice” when it comes to leaving the United States.
“They can leave now, use that CBP Home app, get $1,000, which is a very generous offer of the U.S. taxpayer, get a free ticket home and preserve the potential opportunity to return to the United States the right legal way,” she said. “But if they don’t leave now, they will be arrested, they will be deported, and they may find themselves somewhere like ‘Alligator Alcatraz,’ Guantanamo Bay, or now, the ‘Speedway Slammer.’”
Asked about the record low number of illegal border crossings since the Trump administration took office, McLaughlin responded that “it really is remarkable.”
“It’s nothing short of extraordinary what President Trump, Secretary Noem, this administration and our brave men and women of Border Patrol and ICE law enforcement have been able to do,” she said. “Despite the demonization, the major attacks, the injunctions from activist judges, we’ve been truly able to secure the homeland and also have almost full operational control over that border. We’re going to continue to get those ICE arrest numbers up, and this is huge for the American people.”
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