It was nicknamed The Rape Club. Now Trump could use it to house immigrants.

A federal women’s prison that closed in 2024 due to rampant sexual abuse could possibly reopen as an immigration detention center under the Trump administration.

Hundreds of women reported being repeatedly sexually assaulted by prison staff at FCI Dublin, a Northern California facility so famous for its sexual violence that it was nicknamed “the rape club.” Ten prison guardsincluding the warden and chaplain, were accused of sexually abusing inmates. Most have been convicted or found guilty.

Dozens of those women were specifically subjected to sexual assault due to their immigration status. A federal criminal investigation revealed that prison guards “explicitly target[ed] immigrant women for abuse, taking advantage of the threat of deportation,” according to a Class action lawsuit brought by over 100 women formerly incarcerated at FCI Dublin. The U.S. government later paid a $116 million settlement in the lawsuit.

The guards allegedly looked at the women’s records to find out if they were undocumented, promised to help them with citizenship if they performed sexual favors, or threatened to alert U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement if they reported the abuse.

The site, which has also been plagued by dangerous conditions such as asbestos, black mold and water contamination, could be reopened as an immigration detention center as part of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda.

Federal Bureau of Prisons to divest FCI Dublin and transfer it to U.S. General Services Administration, report says letter BOP sent to Dublin City Council on 10 December. Effectively, BOP is washing its hands of the facility and surrounding 87-acre property, handing it over to the administration, which can reassign it to another agency like DHS.

“It’s the first concrete move we’ve seen in a long time where BOP is potentially taking the first step toward transferring ownership into the hands of DHS,” Susan Beaty, an immigration attorney who has worked with hundreds of Dublin FCI victims, told News themezone.

A BOP spokesperson told News themezone in July that FCI Dublin remained under the jurisdiction of the Department of Justice and there were no plans to reopen it. But now, the Trump administration, which has made an all-out attack on immigrant communities its top priority, can do whatever it wants with FCI Dublin.

A DHS spokesperson told News themezone this week that the agency “has nothing to announce regarding new detention centers for illegal aliens at this time.” The White House referred News themezone to DHS when contacted for comment.

ICE toured the FCI Dublin in February, less than three months after the prison closed due to widespread sexual violence and structural and environmental dangers.

Justin Sullivan via Getty Images

Using defunct federal prisons to help ICE is not a new tactic for the Trump administration. The federal government has converted 16 locked prisons in a dozen states into ICE detention centers, NPR reported this week.

ICE has been aggressively seeking to add a new detention center in Northern California as the agency currently has no facilities in the area. Dublin, about 45 minutes east of San Francisco, would be a prime location for DHS, which tends to create ICE centers near city centers.

Beatriz, a sexual abuse survivor at FCI Dublin who has since been deported, previously expressed how stressful it would be to have to return to prison. He spoke about the anxiety and panic attacks he struggles with after his stay at FCI Dublin and how his children still don’t know what happened to him there. Although staffing would likely be different if the facility reopened under ICE, it would still be deeply troubling to see the dilapidated building repurposed.

“Imagine, if they sent me back to Dublin but now through immigration?” Beatriz, who is being identified by a pseudonym to protect her privacy, told News themezone in July from an ICE detention center in Miami. “After everything I went through in that place… it’s terrifying.”

Beatriz was incarcerated for more than a decade in a California prison, where she says a prison guard sexually abused her for years using her immigration status. Beatriz was deported to Mexico, a country she had not seen in almost 35 years, shortly after speaking to News themezone. His three adult children and several grandchildren live in the United States.

“Imagine, if they send me back to Dublin, but now for immigration? After everything I went through in that place… it’s terrifying.”

– Beatriz, immigrant survivor of sexual abuse at FCI Dublin

The unsafe living conditions at FCI Dublin pose at least one obstacle if the federal government intends to reopen the closed prison. The former BOP director testified under oath that the facility was structurally unsafe and needed “tens of millions” in repairs to become habitable. BOP announced in its letter that it will conduct an environmental assessment of the facility before returning it to GSA.

Immigration advocates, Dublin FCI survivors and Dublin residents remain deeply concerned. There have been ongoing protests outside the closed federal facility and more than 8,300 people have signed a petition to block the reopening of the closed prison as a detention center.

“Our community would be a better, safer place if these facilities were simply demolished,” Rep. Mark DeSaulnier (D-Calif.), a leading advocate for Dublin FCI survivors, told News themezone.

Dublin City Council on Tuesday unanimously passed a largely symbolic resolution, voting against the reopening or reuse of the closed women’s prison. Nearly 40 people opposed the reopening of FCI Dublin during the public comment section of the council meeting.

“I fear for a future where our neighbors are afraid to go out, where my children’s classmates stay home from school to avoid masked federal agents from catching them or their loved ones without due process,” said a Dublin resident and mother of two. “It seems dystopian to even express this fear of the elected [sic] in an American council chamber. Yet here we are.”

Research shows that immigrant arrests are higher in areas with detention centers. An 850-bed facility, roughly the size of FCI Dublin, would result in a 6.4 times higher rate of resident arrests by ICE, Stacy Suh, program director for Detention Watch Network, said during the city council meeting.

Many of the women who reported sexual abuse at FCI Dublin worked with federal investigators and testified in court against their abusers, only to be quickly detained and deported by the U.S. government as soon as they were released from prison.

Beaty told News themezone that two survivors who worked with federal officials to build a case against former Dublin FCI guard Darrell Wayne Smith were detained and deported. Two others who testified against Smith are currently facing deportation. Smith allegedly took advantage of prisoners’ immigration status to perpetrate sexual violence and was charged with 15 counts of sexual abuse of five prisoners, the most charges of the other nine prison guards.

After they were deported, the U.S. government subpoenaed the survivors to testify at Smith’s federal trial, forcing two of them to travel back to the United States after Smith’s first trial ended with a deadlocked jury. His second trial also resulted in a deadlocked jury. Federal prosecutors dismissed all charges against Smith in November.

The federal government could have offered these women a U visa, which was created to encourage victims to report crimes without the threat of deportation. Instead, the government chose not to protect the majority of immigrant survivors who reported rampant sexual abuse at FCI Dublin.

“FCI Dublin is a toxic and decaying facility, and a symbol of sexual violence against immigrant and incarcerated women,” Beaty said. “Survivors of abuse by Dublin FCI staff fought for years to hold the federal government accountable and close the facility…Reopening Dublin’s notorious prison to incarcerate immigrants would be an affront to these survivors and would only perpetuate the abuse.”