(Image source from: Daliymotion)

The United States authorities are transferring about 1,600 Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainees into federal prisons.

Amid Trump administration the first large-scale use of federal prisons to hold detainees crackdown on people entering the country illicitly.

An ICE spokeswoman told media source that five federal prisons will temporarily take in detainees awaiting civil immigration court hearings, including potential asylum seekers, with one prison in Victorville, California, preparing to house 1,000 people.

Officials of a prison employees union said the influx of ICE detainees raises questions about prison staffing and safety.

The union leaders at prisons in California, Texas and Washington stated that they have little time to prepare for the large intake of detainees.

As prisons getting largest number of people at Victorville, workers are moving about 500 inmates in a medium-security facility, said a local president for the American Federation of Government Employees Council of Prison Locals Union John Kostelnik.

"There is so much movement going on. Everyone is running around like a chicken without their head," he added.

ICE spokeswoman Dani Bennett said, "U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is working to meet the demand for additional immigration detention space, both long and short term" due to a surge in illegal border crossings and a U.S. Department of Justice zero-tolerance policy.

"To meet this need, ICE is collaborating with the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS), the Bureau of Prisons (BOP), private detention facility operators and local government agencies," she said in a statement.

By Sowmya Sangam