Communities across the U.S. are pushing back on plans to convert warehouses into immigration detention centers, as the Department of Homeland Security reviews the approach after local opposition and legal challenges. The review came after DHS spent $1.074 billion on 11 warehouses and faced fierce backlash in areas where the purchases moved ahead without early coordination. Days after Markwayne Mullin was sworn in, DHS paused the purchase of additional warehouses intended to house immigrants and began scrutinizing contracts signed under former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
The picture that has emerged across multiple states is one where warehouse deals—some already under contract for renovations—have run into government oversight questions and community resistance tied to logistics and public services. In some places, officials said they were told nothing in advance or only learned of developments after companies or federal agencies moved forward with property inspections and planning. In others, cities and states said they could not assess whether the facilities’ projected impacts could be supported by local infrastructure such as water and wastewater systems.
In Arizona, state officials said they learned of a warehouse deal only after ICE purchased a 418,000-square-foot facility in the Phoenix suburb of Surprise for $70 million. Kris Mayes, the state’s top prosecutor, said in a letter to former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem that local officials were told nothing before the purchase. Documents later provided by ICE said DHS planned a processing site with an average daily capacity of 1,000 to 1,500 people, and that a contract worth at least $313.4 million was awarded to transform the warehouse. Surprise Mayor Kevin Sartor said DHS is now planning a more modest start, beginning with 250 people per week and capping occupied beds at 542.
Florida officials raised questions after a January tour of a 439,945-square-foot industrial warehouse in Orlando. A TV reporter spotted private contractors and federal officials, and ICE senior adviser David Venturella told WFTV the tour was “exploratory.” As of April, the city still hadn’t heard anything, a spokesperson said in an email.
In Georgia, local officials said they were informed about detention capacity plans only after ICE bought a warehouse in Social Circle for $128.6 million. The city said the federal government informed it that the facility is expected to house from 7,500 to 10,000 detainees. The city said it was so concerned about strain on its water supply that it put a lock on the warehouse’s water meter, and DHS suggested trucking in drinking water and trucking out waste, according to a letter from Democratic Sens. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff. They said that plan was unworkable.
Georgia officials also challenged a separate warehouse purchase in Oakwood. ICE bought a 540,408-square-foot warehouse for $68.2 million, based on a deed. City Manager B.R. White said his first inkling that a deal was imminent came when a warehouse supervisor told a city inspector he’d been instructed to clear the job site to make way for the new owners—the federal government.
In Maryland, 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 is on hold after Maryland’s attorney general sued. The report said the warehouse has divided the community, and that county commissioners passed a resolution in support of ICE during a contentious meeting.
Elsewhere, disputes extended into state and local litigation over land-use and public services. In Michigan, after DHS paid $34.7 million for a 250,000-square-foot warehouse in Romulus, the state and city sued, arguing the warehouse is in a flood plain and that the sewage system couldn’t keep up if 500 people are detained inside. The suit also faulted DHS for not considering state empty prison facilities and for not talking with state and city officials.
In New Jersey, the report said township and state officials sued after DHS bought a 470,044-square-foot warehouse in Roxbury for $129.3 million, alleging federal officials kept them in the dark. The suit said, “State and local officials might not have a veto over DHS’s decisions, but this utter lack of communication and consultation flies in the face of federal law.”
Utah officials said they learned of a warehouse purchase only after it had already been secured. 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 or congressional delegation, Mayor Erin Mendenhall said. She said in a statement released in March that ICE officials later told her the facility would house 7,500 to 10,000 people, and that the city had moved to cap water use at just a fraction of what would be needed to operate the warehouse as a detention site.
The pushback also included instances where state leaders said their negotiations or opposition helped end specific deals. New Hampshire Gov. Kelly Ayotte said in March that DHS would not move forward with a proposed ICE facility in Merrimack, after ICE disclosed plans to spend $158 million to convert a warehouse into a 500-bed processing center. Ayotte said that the economic impact summary she received was not sent until hours after an ICE official testified that DHS “has worked with Gov. Ayotte.” The summary, Ayotte said, erroneously referred to “ripple effects to the Oklahoma economy” and revenue generated by state sales and income taxes that do not exist in New Hampshire.
In Tennessee, the report said ICE mistakenly announced it had completed the purchase of a warehouse in Lebanon, and that the sheriff and mayor wrote to officials about the likely local impact, including the projected scale of 14,000 to 16,000 detainees that the report described. Marsha Blackburn later said the deal was dead. In Virginia, after boycott threats, Jim Pattison Developments said in January it would not proceed with a planned sale of a warehouse near Richmond and that it wasn’t aware of the intended use until after it agreed to the sale.
The overall warehouse-to-detention strategy has been met with opposition that spans lawsuits, water and sewage concerns, and disputes about whether communities were consulted before purchases proceeded. The Associated Press reporters Holly Ramer, Isabella Volmert and Marc Levy contributed to the report.