Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin is reviewing plans to transform warehouses across the United States into immigration detention facilities, and the effort has met widespread resistance from local and state officials, the Associated Press reported.
The AP said immigration officials had already spent a total of $1.074 billion to secure 11 warehouses. It also reported that days after Mullin was sworn in, the Department of Homeland Security paused the purchase of additional warehouses intended to house immigrants, while the department began scrutinizing contracts signed under his predecessor, Kristi Noem.
In Arizona, the state’s top prosecutor, Kris Mayes, said local officials were not told in advance about ICE’s purchase of a 418,000-square-foot warehouse in the Phoenix suburb of Surprise for $70 million. Documents later provided by ICE indicated DHS planned a processing site with an average daily capacity of 1,000 to 1,500, and that a contract worth at least $313.4 million was awarded to transform the site. Surprise Mayor Kevin Sartor said DHS has shifted to a smaller plan, starting with 250 people per week and capping occupied beds at 542.
In Florida, a TV reporter in Orlando spotted private contractors and federal officials touring a 439,945-square-foot industrial warehouse in January. The AP reported that ICE senior adviser David Venturella told a WFTV reporter that the tour was “exploratory,” and that as of April the city had still not heard anything further.
In Georgia, the AP reported that ICE bought a warehouse in Social Circle for $128.6 million, and that the city said the federal government told it the facility was expected to house 7,500 to 10,000 detainees. The city said it grew concerned about the impact on its water supply and put a lock on the warehouse’s water meter, and DHS’s suggested plan to truck in drinking water and truck out waste was described in a letter from U.S. Sens. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff as unworkable.
Other states reported similar concerns about communication and capacity impacts. In Indiana, the AP said the town of Merrillville raised concerns after ICE toured a new warehouse and that owner Opus Holding LLC sent a letter saying it was not negotiating with federal officials for the property and citing legal limits on what it could share. In Maryland, the AP reported ICE purchased a warehouse about 60 miles northwest of Baltimore for $102.4 million and signed a contract worth at least $113 million to renovate it, but that work was on hold after Maryland’s attorney general sued, with county commissioners voting in support of ICE during a contentious meeting.
In Michigan, the AP reported DHS paid $34.7 million for a 250,000-square-foot warehouse in Romulus and that the state and city sued. The lawsuit, according to the AP, said the warehouse sits in a flood plain, that local sewage infrastructure could not keep up if 500 people were detained there, and that DHS did not consider empty state prison facilities or speak with state and city officials.
In Minnesota, the AP said warehouse owners in the Minneapolis suburbs of Woodbury and Shakopee withdrew from possible ICE deals after public outcry, while in New Hampshire, Gov. Kelly Ayotte said DHS would not move forward with a proposed ICE facility in Merrimack. The AP reported that Ayotte had sparred with federal officials after ICE disclosed plans to spend $158 million to convert a warehouse into a 500-bed processing center and that an ICE official testified DHS “has worked with Gov. Ayotte” and provided an economic impact summary; Ayotte said the summary was provided only hours after that testimony and that it contained erroneous references to Oklahoma’s economy.
In New Jersey, the AP reported that after DHS bought a 470,044-square-foot warehouse in Roxbury for $129.3 million, the township and state sued, alleging federal officials kept them in the dark. In New York, the AP said ICE said it made a mistake when it announced the purchase of a vacant warehouse in Chester and that a state assemblyman later said ICE was no longer considering the facility.
In Pennsylvania, the AP reported DHS purchased warehouses in Tremont Township ($119.5 million) and Upper Bern Township ($87.4 million), with Gov. Josh Shapiro saying his administration will fight DHS’s plans and the state Department of Environmental Protection barring water and sewage from being supplied to the facilities for now. In Texas, the AP reported that ICE paid $122.8 million for three warehouses in Socorro and $66.1 million for a warehouse in San Antonio, with mayors in both cities opposed and questions raised about water supplies, and that another planned deal in the Dallas suburb of Hutchins was scuttled after a real estate company told it would not sell or lease buildings to DHS for use as a detention facility.
The AP also described political and operational disputes in places including Oklahoma, Mississippi, Missouri, Utah, Virginia and Tennessee, including cases where deals were described as dead after local opposition and boycott threats, and cases where officials cited concerns about local law-enforcement resources, utilities capacity, or the timing and accuracy of disclosures.
As the department reviews the program and the contracts connected to it, the AP said the outcome remains unsettled across jurisdictions, ranging from shifted capacity plans in some locations to lawsuits and canceled deals in others.