U.S. Navy May Convert Former Concord Naval Base Into Immigrant Detention Facility

In the San Francisco Bay Area, the U.S. Navy is considering converting a former naval weapons base into a detention facility to hold up to 47,000 immigrants seized at the U.S. border with Mexico. The plan is to jail families at the former base in Concord, where a large printed banner read "Concord: Where Families Come First" at a recent protest against the Trump Zero-Tolerance immigration policy.

An internal document, drafted for the Navy Secretary’s approval, was obtained by TIME magazine. The memo demonstrates how the U.S. military is complicit in Trump’s immigration policy nightmare. After tremendous backlash about children separated from their immigrant parents when families are seized at the border, Federal immigration officials are now saying they will keep families together in detention until their cases can be heard in immigration court.

The memo being considered by the Secretary of the Navy lists the Concord base along with other sites to construct “temporary and austere” tent cities in California, Alabama and Arizona. The Trump administration's illegal actions have created a giant wave of people being arrested at the U.S.-Mexico border since April.