Join the Indiana Undocumented Youth Alliance (IUYA), Cosecha Indiana, the Indiana Latino Democratic Caucus (INLDC), the Communities Not Cages Indiana Coalition (CNCIC) and other immigrant-rights organizations and allies to stand against the ICE Expansion at Camp Atterbury and the Miami Correctional Facility at the former Grissom Air Force base.
On July 15, 2025, the Secretary of the Department of Defense (“DOD”) Pete Hegseth informed Congress that the Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) plans to begin holding individuals in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) at Camp Atterbury, a military post with capacity to hold thousands of individuals. Camp Atterbury is a 34,000 acre federal facility near Edinburgh, IN, 45 minutes southeast of Indianapolis, IN which is operated by the Indiana National Guard.
We are further opposed to the August 1, 2025 announcement by the Braun Administration that the Indiana Department of Corrections plans to make 1000 beds available at the maximum security Miami Correctional Facility at the former Grissom Air Force Base through Indiana’s 287g agreements with ICE. The Trump Administration has already given the Miami facility the mocking nickname, "Speedway Slammer."
Despite calls for transparency, access to vital information has been hard to come by. We echo Congressman Andre Carson’s concerns in that “ICE is ripping families apart for offenses as minor as traffic tickets, and others are detained without having committed any crime at all,” he said. “Without due process, anyone and everyone is at risk, including U.S. citizens.”
The nationwide Detention Watch Network has long reported the pattern in the data between ICE detention capacity and the increase in local and regional arrests. Locally, Hoosier advocates have seen this pattern up close in the bruising fight against a physical expansion at Clay County Jail in Brazil, IN in 2022. After the Clay County Jail addition was completed in May 2024, ICE capacity expanded by 170% in Indiana. Now, the use of Camp Atterbury threatens not only immigrants in Indiana but in the Midwest region and the nation at large. Government data shows that the Trump Administration detained a record 56,000 people this year alone; if ICE now has access to thousands of military base beds at Camp Atterbury and other military facilities, ICE’s predatory behavior will not be able to be contained.
We are calling Congressman Jefferson Shreve, Senator Jim Banks, and Senator Todd Young to block the use of beds at Camp Atterbury and the Miami Correctional Facility for individuals held in ICE custody. Indiana’s congressional officials should be holding public hearings on the controversial question of the use of these military facilities for ICE enforcement rather than military operations, readiness, and training for foreign defense. Public hearings are particularly important on this issue given the stains on the United States’ history due to our past unjust detention of Japanese, German, and Italian immigrants during World War II as well as the much publicized detention of Central American families in the Obama and and first Trump Administrations which led to public outcries.
Please sign this petition if you’re against tax-payers dollars being used to rip families apart, and you oppose Trump’s radical mass deportation machine. Please share with your communities.
In the meantime these organizations are monitoring DHS’s timeline around Camp Atterbury and the Miami Correctional Facility and will provide updates on any planned public demonstrations.
Thank you!
#IndianaHereToStay CommunitiesNotCages #FamiliesBelongTogether #AbolishICE
Transparency Note: we’re using Google Forms to avoid your contact information being used by third parties and give you the option to share your contact information with Hoosier immigrant organizers who are building community to support undocumented communities in Indiana.
Photo from the ACLU Northern California.
