The nightmare of undocumented immigrants being rounded up en masse into camps could be closer to reality than we think, as a rumor is now out there that ICE has been sniffing around FCI Dublin, the shuttered women's prison in the East Bay.

The troubled prison, which was dubbed a "rape club" after a slew of assault cases involving prison staff and inmates in recent years, abruptly shut down last April, leading to a chaotic re-housing process for the facilities inmates, who needed to be bussed to various facilities around the country. And in December, federal officials said that the prison would remain closed for good, in part due to "crumbling infrastructure and limited budgetary resources."

But, allegedly, officials with Immigration and Customs Enforcement have been making inquiries about putting the facility back into use.

As the LA Times reports, this revelation comes several paragraphs into a letter from the prison employees' union to the federal prison system, seeking data on recent prison closures.

"FCI Dublin had at least one assessment completed on July 22, 2024, which we believe was considered a 'structural assessment,'" the letter from the American Federation of Government Employees Council of Prison Locals No. 33 says, per the LA Times. "The union has learned that this assessment has been provided to ICE for what appears to be the potential of ICE taking over the facility."

As KTVU further reports, John Kostelnik, the Western region vice president of the union, says that ICE officials recently toured the facility, and he seems to fear that Bureau of Prisons itself will become enmeshed with the process of mass incarceration of immigrants.

"Facilities like Dublin … are closed and being looked at for purposes outside the [Bureau of Prisons], like ICE taking over or even an ICE contractor taking over," Kostelnik tells KTVU. "There is so much uncertainty, and the lack of transparency is causing complete chaos. The displaced staff have little to no hope and have been fully demoralized through it all."

"My fear is that the bureau is just going to become a branch of ICE — but that’s not what we do,” Kostelnik added in comments to the LA Times. "Our primary focus should be and always has been keeping the community safe from convicted murderers and rapists and our staff do a tremendous job of that, even while dealing with the staffing crisis. But now we’re having an additional mission thrown at us, that could cripple our ability to do what we’re supposed to do."

The Bureau of Prisons confirmed in an email to the LA Times that it is "assisting the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement by housing detainees."

And ICE put out a statement saying, "While we cannot confirm individual pre-decisional conversations, we can confirm that ICE is exploring all options to meet its current and future detention requirements."

Attorneys for former inmates at the Dublin facility say that it is filled with asbestos and black mold, and rife with leaks, sewage overflows, and water contamination. A Bureau of Prisons official has said that the facility will need tens of millions of dollars in repairs.

Beyond the issues with the facility itself, Kostelnik says that the BOP went through this once before, during the first Trump administration, when they were asked to find space for 1,600 immigrant detainees. The process led to many logistical issues, as well as other issues, like communication, with many of the detainees unable to speak any English, and no one on staff could speak their languages.

Kostelnik sent a January email to Padilla’s office, saying "I fear this is coming soon," and he also fears that the Trump administration will turn to private contractors to manage these facilities, due to the inadequacies of the BOP.

Previously: Notorious Dublin Women's Prison Is Being Shuttered For Good, Feds Say