Detainees in immigration centres could soon face more security searches, while mobile phones, tablets and other internet-enabled devices could be banned.
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Acting Immigration Minister Alan Tudge has introduced proposed laws that will give Australian Border Force officers search and seizure powers.
Under existing legislation, ABF officers are not allowed to search immigration detainees and must instead rely on state or federal police.
"As we cancel the visas of more foreign criminals, more end up in immigration detention, and current powers are not adequate to keep those facilities safe," Mr Tudge said on Thursday.
"These are people who often have a history of child sex abuse, violence and drug use and many have links to criminal gangs such as bikies and organised crime.
"Currently a detainee could have a bag of cocaine, instructions on how to build a bomb, or child exploitation images in their room, and the ABF would be powerless to seize it. Clearly this is unacceptable."
Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton said two-thirds of people in immigration detention were facing deportation on character grounds.
"We are talking about bikies, drug dealers, sexual offenders, rapists," Mr Dutton told reporters.
"We are talking about criminals within the detention network."
There were 332 contraband items detected in immigration detention centres between January and April, including improvised weapons and drugs.
The bill would allow the minister to prohibit items including mobile phones from immigration centres.
Mr Tudge said mobiles were being used to coordinate escapes, riots and attempted executions.
He said they were also being used to smuggle drugs and access child pornography and extremist propaganda.
But refugee lawyers and advocates have long argued mobiles are essential to communicate with their clients, and for detainees to stay connected with friends and relatives living in freedom.
Greens senator Nick McKim described the proposed laws as massive overreach, saying mobile phones were absolutely essential in immigration detention.
"They allow people to stay in touch with friends and family, and they also help shine the disinfectant of sunlight on abuses which are all too common," he said.
"There are many people in immigration detention who have no criminal history. These facilities are not prisons, despite the government's attempts to make them such."
Australian Associated Press
