(CNN) - The Trump administration is taking steps to increase the number of beds at private prisons.
Those prisons are primarily used to house non-U.S. citizens convicted of low-level drug and immigration offenses.
The notice of bids from the Bureau of Prisons was posted last month and signals an increase of more than 1,600 beds to the system.
That could bring the total population in private prisons to nearly 23,000.
The move is in direct opposition to the Obama administration's plan to reduce the number.
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