BALDWIN, Mich. (BRIDGE) – Around 200 vehicles filled the parking lot of North Lake Correctional Facility, a private prison on the outskirts of the small town of Baldwin in Lake County, on the morning of the last Friday in May.
About 10 men in white uniform T-shirts were busy outside, applying a fresh coat of paint to the front gate and using a propane torch to burn weeds in the gravel outside the detention center’s main entrance.
They were there for employee training as the shuttered prison prepared to reopen with a new client — US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which is desperately searching for beds for immigration detainees as President Donald Trump expands deportation efforts across the country.
The prison has been shuttered since 2022. Prison leaders haven’t told local officials when North Lake will reopen, and neither prison owner GEO Group nor ICE could be reached for comment on this story.
It will likely be the second-largest ICE detention center in the country.
GEO Group plans to hire as many as 500 people to reopen the prison, according to the local chapter of Michigan Works!, which is helping GEO Group recruit new staff. Leaders and residents said that would be a big deal to Lake County, the poorest county in Michigan, with an unemployment rate of 7.6%, compared to 4.2% nationally, and around 20% of residents living below the federal poverty line.
For local residents, promises of new jobs are tempered by what has long been an on-again, off-again relationship between their community and North Lake, which has repeatedly opened with much fanfare only to shutter completely when a contract ends.
Many residents doubt whether this contract will last.
“In four years, are we going to have another president, another House of Representatives, and a Senate that is gonna change their stance on immigration?” said Lake County Commissioner Robert Sanders. “That’s the hardest thing for us.”
For locals, a familiar cycle continues
Baldwin is nestled in the middle of Manistee National Forest, a middle point between Grand Rapids and Traverse City at the intersection of M-10 and M-37. A small river snakes through the woods within walking distance of shops on the town’s main drag.
When North Lake is closed, most of the economic activity in the area comes from recreation. It’s a well-known spot for trout fishing, celebrated by a 25-foot tall statue of a lake trout in the center of town.
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