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VERIFY: Is there an ICE prison bus for children?

An image making the rounds on social media over the past few days suggests U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has a prison bus just for babies.

Twitter user @nycsouthpaw first tweeted about it on May 26, writing "I was reading about ICE's largest family detention facility—Karnes, which is run by a private contractor—and I happened upon this photo on the contractor's blog. As my friend put it, they've got a prison bus for babies down there."

That tweet includes a link to the website for The Geo Group, a company that contracts with ICE. An article written by the company back in 2016 boasts about two "larger capacity vehicles to provide offsite field trips" for kids at the Karnes County Residential Center (KCRC) near San Antonio. Those field trips, offered for children between the ages of 4 and 17 who are enrolled in the charter school at KCRC, include visits to the San Antonio Zoo, the movie theater and parks.

We can verify the photo is real and the bus does transport children, but it's being shared out of context. Many social media users link it to a Trump administration policy that separates parents and children if they cross the U.S.-Mexico border illegally. However, the photo was first published in 2016.

VERIFY: Sources

The Geo Group

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