Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin is reviewing a plan to transform warehouses across the United States into immigration detention facilities for tens of thousands of immigrants, according to an Associated Press review of documents and local responses. The review follows a pause on purchases of new warehouses intended to house immigrants and scrutiny of contracts signed under Mullin’s predecessor, Kristi Noem, the AP reported.
The AP said immigration officials have spent $1.074 billion for 11 warehouses, and that the purchases have largely been met with fierce opposition in the communities where the facilities were planned. In several states, local leaders said they were not informed in advance, while others said federal plans would strain resources such as water and sewage systems or create problems for local law enforcement and services.
The conflict played out in different ways across the country. In Arizona, the state’s top prosecutor, Kris Mayes, said local officials were told nothing before ICE purchased a 418,000-square-foot warehouse in the Phoenix suburb of Surprise for $70 million. The AP said documents later provided by ICE described a processing site with an average daily capacity of 1,000 to 1,500 and a contract worth at least $313.4 million to transform the facility, while DHS later planned a more modest initial approach starting at 250 people per week and capping occupied beds at 542, according to Surprise Mayor Kevin Sartor.
In Florida, a TV reporter in Orlando spotted private contractors and federal officials touring a 439,945-square-foot industrial warehouse in January, and ICE senior adviser David Venturella told WFTV the tour was “exploratory.” By April, the city still had not heard anything from DHS, a spokesperson told the AP.
In Georgia, the AP said ICE bought a massive warehouse in Social Circle for $128.6 million, and the city said the federal government informed it the facility would be expected to house 7,500 to 10,000 detainees. The city, concerned about strain on its water supply, put a lock on the warehouse’s water meter. DHS suggested trucking in drinking water and trucking out waste, according to a letter from Democratic Sens. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, who said the plan was unworkable.
Other states saw legal fights and changes to timelines. In Maryland, the AP reported that ICE purchased a warehouse about 60 miles northwest of Baltimore in Washington County for $102.4 million and signed a contract worth at least $113 million to renovate it, but work was put on hold after Maryland’s attorney general sued. The AP also reported that the county’s commissioners passed a resolution in support of ICE during a contentious meeting, reflecting division in the community.
In Michigan, the AP said DHS paid $34.7 million for a 250,000-square-foot warehouse in Romulus, and that the state and city sued. The suit alleged the warehouse is in a flood plain, that the sewage system could not keep up if 500 people are detained there, and that DHS failed to consider empty state prison facilities or talk to state and city officials.
Local opposition extended to Minnesota, where the AP said owners of warehouses in the Minneapolis suburbs of Woodbury and Shakopee pulled out of possible ICE deals after public outcry. In Utah, the AP reported that DHS bought an 833,280-square-foot warehouse in Salt Lake City for $145.4 million without notifying the city’s Democratic leaders or the state’s Republican governor and congressional delegation, and Mayor Erin Mendenhall said ICE later told her the facility would house 7,500 to 10,000 people. The AP said the city moved to cap water use at a fraction of what would be needed to operate the warehouse as a detention site.
Across the AP’s survey of states, some proposals were effectively shut down or scaled back amid pressure. In New Hampshire, the AP reported that Gov. Kelly Ayotte said DHS would not move forward with a proposed facility in Merrimack after ICE disclosed plans to spend $158 million to convert a warehouse into a 500-bed processing center, and after disputes about an economic impact summary. In Missouri, the AP said Platform Ventures announced it would not proceed with a sale of a warehouse in Kansas City after weeks of public pressure.
In Texas, ICE paid $122.8 million for warehouses in the El Paso suburb of Socorro and $66.1 million for a warehouse in San Antonio, the AP said, with mayors in both cities opposed and local officials questioning water supplies. The AP also reported that another deal in Texas was scuttled after community backlash in the Dallas suburb of Hutchins, where a real estate company confirmed it was contacted about a property but said it would not sell or lease buildings to DHS for detention use.
The AP said in Virginia that after boycott threats, Jim Pattison Developments announced it would not proceed with a planned sale of a warehouse in the suburbs of Richmond, saying it was not aware of the intended use until after it agreed to the sale.
The Associated Press reported that its investigation drew on the documents and responses from local officials and states, as DHS reviews how the warehouse acquisitions and related contracts were carried out.