(NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE) U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is planning a national call center in Nashville dedicated to tracking unaccompanied migrant children, aiming to open by the end of March 2026 and reach full operations by June 2026. The facility will run 24 hours a day and be built to handle between 6,000 and 7,000 calls daily tied to immigration enforcement, according to ICE. The agency said it has an “immediate need” to stand up the operation as part of the Trump administration’s push to step up enforcement against migrants who entered the country illegally as minors.
The move follows a February directive from the administration for immigration agents to target migrant children who entered the United States without a parent or legal guardian. ICE expects the call center to rely on a dedicated unit that will work closely with state and local law enforcement to track the whereabouts of unaccompanied children. That coordination is intended to allow federal officers to access information gathered by local and state police departments, feeding into ICE enforcement operations linked to the call center.
Officials have not publicly explained why Nashville was selected as the location. The city is home to the headquarters of CoreCivic, one of the nation’s largest private prison and detention contractors, but the Department of Homeland Security, ICE, and CoreCivic did not provide official comment on the reasoning behind the choice. The facility is expected to be a central hub for data intake and follow-up, unifying calls and tips from across the country into a single point of contact for agents working cases that involve unaccompanied children.
The volume of calls the center is designed to manage underscores the scale of the task federal authorities anticipate. According to government data cited by ICE, more than 600,000 children have crossed the U.S.-Mexico border alone since 2019. The planned call center is meant to process information streaming in from across the United States, with personnel in Nashville coordinating with police departments to confirm addresses, track movements, and route leads to ICE field offices. ICE has not released further detail on staffing levels, the size of the facility, or the specific technologies to be used, beyond its plan for continuous operations and large call capacity.
The plan has drawn sharp criticism from legal advocates who work with minors in immigration proceedings. Michael Lukens, executive director of the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights, which provides legal services to unaccompanied migrant children, said:
“There are a host of federal laws and programs that purport to protect unaccompanied children, which this administration has been actively attempting to dismantle.”
He warned that:
“The center will not protect children. It will only serve to make it easier to deport them.”
His group and others who represent minors in court say a centralized call center aims squarely at enforcement, not child welfare, and could put children and their sponsors under pressure as ICE intensifies efforts to locate them.
ICE’s description of the Nashville call center centers on coordination. The agency’s plan calls for a dedicated unit to receive assistance from state and local law enforcement, facilitating regular information-sharing with police departments. In practical terms, that means the call center will be able to draw on records and data held by local authorities and feed that information to federal teams. By positioning the call center as a round-the-clock operation, ICE is signaling that tips and enforcement leads linked to unaccompanied children will be processed continuously rather than routed through scattered regional channels.
The end-of-quarter timeline is unusually specific for a federal enforcement initiative. ICE says the call center should open by the end of March 2026, with full operational status by June 2026, leaving only a brief ramp-up period between launch and full capacity. The agency’s reference to an “immediate need” suggests the planning phase is already underway, even as details such as hiring numbers, contracts, and the range of services to be hosted in Nashville have not been publicly detailed. The target of 6,000 to 7,000 daily calls indicates a system built for significant intake, triage, and follow-through by officers assigned to unaccompanied child cases across multiple jurisdictions.
The Trump administration’s direction in February to target unaccompanied migrant children marked a clearer enforcement posture toward minors who crossed the border alone. For years, local police departments have collected a range of information during routine interactions and investigations that can later be shared with federal agencies. ICE’s planned call center would formalize and centralize that flow in cases involving unaccompanied children, creating a single-number, national intake point for tips and requests for verification that can ripple quickly into enforcement actions.
Immigrant advocates have warned the approach risks turning local police into extensions of federal immigration enforcement in ways that affect neighborhoods far from the border. Lukens’ view reflects wider concerns among attorneys and community groups that the centralized call center could make it easier for ICE to find and detain children, even as those children are navigating complex legal cases.
“The center will not protect children. It will only serve to make it easier to deport them,” he said, arguing that the national hub will accelerate removals rather than support the welfare of unaccompanied children who arrived without parents or legal guardians.
Nashville’s selection brings attention to the city’s role in the immigration enforcement landscape. While the presence of CoreCivic’s headquarters in the city has been noted, neither the Department of Homeland Security, ICE, nor CoreCivic offered official comment on why the call center will be based there. That silence has left key questions unanswered about whether proximity to private detention operations factored into site planning, how the call center will interact with detention facilities nationwide, and what, if any, local infrastructure or workforce advantages drove the decision to open the call center in Tennessee.
The move also highlights how the federal government is adapting its enforcement tools as the number of children who crossed the border without parents has grown since 2019. With more than 600,000 arrivals over that period, ICE’s plan for a centralized call center seeks to manage a large flow of information that can range from address updates to reports of movement across state lines. By framing the Nashville hub as an around-the-clock operation, ICE is effectively creating a national switchboard for child-focused immigration enforcement, with personnel coordinating closely with state troopers, county sheriffs, and city police departments that maintain local records.
The agency has not publicly described how it will safeguard sensitive information processed through the call center, nor has it detailed protocols for handling calls that involve minors. It has emphasized the role of state and local law enforcement in assisting the dedicated unit, pointing to a model in which federal officers rely on data and cooperation from multiple layers of government. Advocates like Lukens argue that this model can blur lines between community policing and federal immigration enforcement, especially when the subject is a child who arrived without a parent and may be living with relatives, friends, or other sponsors while navigating immigration court.
For families and communities that have taken in unaccompanied children, the launch of a national call center could change their daily reality. A system built to answer thousands of calls each day and to route information from police databases to ICE officers can accelerate case activity and heighten scrutiny of addresses associated with minors. The agency’s stated “immediate need” and aggressive timeline suggest that enforcement tied to unaccompanied children will remain a priority into June 2026 and beyond, as the center grows from opening to full operation. Whether the call center will include services beyond enforcement intake has not been addressed by ICE in the information released so far.
As planning continues, ICE’s Nashville hub is set to become a focal point for how the federal government tracks unaccompanied children within the United States. The strategy—centralization, 24/7 staffing, and deep coordination with local and state law enforcement—reflects an enforcement-first approach that critics say risks sweeping vulnerable minors into a system designed to remove them. With a firm opening goal by the end of March 2026, and a ramp to full capacity by June 2026, the call center is poised to reshape the way ICE receives, verifies, and acts on information about unaccompanied children scattered across states and cities far from the southern border.
Further information about ICE and its enforcement programs can be found on the agency’s official website at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
This Article in a Nutshell
ICE plans a 24/7 national call center in Nashville to track unaccompanied migrant children, aiming to open by March 2026 and reach full capacity by June 2026. Built to handle 6,000–7,000 daily calls, the center will centralize tips and coordinate with state and local law enforcement to verify locations and route leads to ICE field offices. Advocates warn the hub prioritizes enforcement over child welfare and raises data protection concerns; ICE has not detailed staffing or technology.
