From AZMirror 19 May 2026: "Members of Congress are still concerned about a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement holding facility in Mesa after seeing cells still overcrowded and finding out that toilets at the facility “regularly overflow” after an unannounced visit Tuesday night. This is the second surprise oversight visit to the facility located at Mesa-Gateway Airport known as the Arizona Removal Operations Coordination Center, which has been operating far over its 157-person capacity for most of this year. Daily populations at the facility have reached as high as 777. An Arizona Mirror analysis of ICE detention data found that one of the few times ICE was detaining fewer people than that was when those same Democrats toured the facility in February — after giving ICE a week’s notice that they’d be taking a tour. Almost immediately after that oversight visit, the number of detainees shot back up. And a week after that visit, ICE used pepper spray on 47 detainees who were housed there in the early morning hours; one person reportedly had a “seizure,” according to a 911 call obtained by the Mirror."

From AZMirror, 29 August 2025: "The Arizona Removal Operations Coordination Center, or AROCC for short, is a 25,000-square-foot facility at the Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport. It opened in 2010 to little fanfare and can house up to 157 detainees and 79 employees from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to an ICE press release from 2010. While larger detention facilities in the state have gotten much more attention, AROCC has avoided the limelight. It is one of many temporary hold facilities across the country, meant to house detainees for short periods of time before they are shipped to longer-term facilities or removed from the country. However, an analysis by the Arizona Mirror of data of ICE detention records that the Deportation Data Project obtained via the Freedom of Information Act shows that, in some cases, detainees have stayed for longer than the 12 hours ICE has said the facility is meant for. 'The short-term hold facilities are meant to be very short-term hold facilities,' Noah Schramm, border policy strategist for the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona told the Mirror. 'If you are finding people who are staying there for extended periods of time, that is something we would find concerning.' Of the more than 9,000 people who have gone through the facility between September 2023 and June 2025, the Mirror was able to identify 95 instances in which people stayed at the facility for longer than 48 hours. In one case, a detainee was recorded as having stayed at the facility for 42 days. The man held for 42 days was listed as 'not an aggravated felon' from Venezuela whose charge was listed as 'immigrant without an immigrant visa.' He was deported to Mexico, according to the data. As recently as June of this year, 77 people were detained for approximately four days over a weekend that included the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha; at least one of the detainees was identified in the data as a practicing Muslim. The 77 people were ultimately deported via a lengthy charter flight."

Immigration and Customs Enforcement Press Release (March 2010): "MESA, Ariz. - U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Tuesday unveiled a new 25,000 square foot facility in the Phoenix area that is expected to significantly bolster the agency's efforts to repatriate Central Americans who are found to be in the United States illegally. Overseen by ICE Detention and Removal Operations (DRO), the new Arizona Removal Operations Coordination Center (AROCC), located at the Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport, will house 79 ICE employees and up to 157 temporary detainees who are awaiting removal to countries such as Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. 'As ICE continues to increase its capacity to remove aliens from the United States, the AROCC will provide us with the space and resources we need to complete our mission quickly and efficiently,' said ICE Arizona Field Office Director Katrina S. Kane. This year, ICE's Arizona Office of Detention and Removal Operations expects to repatriate more than 22,000 Central Americans, double the number of removals recorded in 2006. The AROCC is expected to be a key hub for ICE's Flight Operations Unit, which operates a network of flight centers across the United States to effectively manage the detention and removal of aliens unlawfully present in the United States."