The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is expanding its immigration detention network with a 1,000-bed facility in Indiana dubbed the “Speedway Slammer.” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the site—an unused wing of the state-run Miami Correctional Center about 70 miles north of Indianapolis—was arranged in partnership with Governor Mike Braun. The addition raises Indiana’s capacity to hold undocumented migrants and is funded under the immigration and border provisions of a July reconciliation law. “Speedway Slammer” is modeled on Florida’s 3,000-bed “Alligator Alcatraz,” which opened in the Everglades last month and is already facing federal lawsuits over environmental and civil-rights concerns. Florida has begun contracting for a second facility near Jacksonville, while DHS officials signal interest in replicating the concept at other transportation hubs nationwide. To staff the growing system, DHS has scrapped the upper age limit for joining Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Applicants previously had to be 37 or 40 or younger, depending on the role; anyone over 18 may now apply. Noem said the agency has recorded about 80,000 applications for 10,000 new positions since the policy shift, aided by recruitment bonuses of up to $50,000 and other incentives. The detention build-out and hiring surge draw on roughly $45 billion in new ICE funding that Congress approved in July, which also authorises up to 80,000 detention beds nationwide. The Trump administration argues the measures will speed deportations, while immigrant-rights and environmental groups warn that the rapid expansion risks repeating the overcrowding, legal-access and ecological problems already alleged at Alligator Alcatraz.