By HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH, DAVID A. LIEB and MORGAN LEE/The Associated Press
Federal immigration officials are scouting warehouses and beginning to purchase some of them to transform into detention and processing facilities.
Some warehouse owners have decided not to sell to Immigration and Customs Enforcement under pressure from elected officials and advocates. Some cities are issuing statements urging ICE to look elsewhere.
ICE has offered few specifics, even to the cities, but said in a statement that the sites wouldn’t be warehouses but “well structured detention facilities” and said it should come as no surprise that the agency is working to expand detention space.
Here is a look at what’s happening:
New Hampshire
The town council in Merrimack — population 30,000 — expressed its opposition to an ICE immigration detention and processing center in a January letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, without receiving a direct response.
Council members fear federal acquisition of a commercial warehouse in Merrimack, 45 miles northwest of Boston, would undermine the city’s property tax base by more than $500,000 a year, shifting costs to other property owners.
The Department of Homeland Security told New Hampshire’s congressional delegation that ICE is “reviewing its detention structure and acquisition strategy to address a historic operational tempo and increasing arrests” and had no new detention centers to announce.
The ACLU of New Hampshire said Tuesday that public records show ICE has consulted with state historic preservation officials about development of a 43-acre site at Merrimack.
Democratic state Rep. Rosemarie Rung of Merrimack said her constituents worry about the strain of an immigration detention center on local emergency services and public infrastructure.
“I really suspect that the silent treatment is deliberate so that they can avoid any protests regarding this facility,” Rung said. “It makes us all very suspect.”
Other states nationwide are facing the same issue.
Other states
In New York, elected officials are pushing back after the Department of Homeland Security posted a notice announcing a proposal to purchase a vacant warehouse in Chester, a town more than an hour north of New York City, for “ICE operations.” ICE said the proposed improvements would include a small guard building and outdoor recreation area.
The notice was needed because the former distribution center for the aftermarket automotive chain PepBoys is in a 100-year flood plain.
New York state Sen. Michelle Hinchey, a Democrat, said in a statement that she would support the town and village boards as they use “every legal, zoning, and environmental tool available” to block the facility.
Officials in Arizona, Indiana, Florida, Maryland, Minnesota, Mississippi, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah and Virginia have also started to discuss the Department of Homeland Security looking to turn buildings into detention centers,.
In Orlando, Florida, Mayor Buddy Dyer said in a statement last month that the city was advised that it has no legal options to halt a possible ICE facility from opening.
The statement said the city has not been informed by the federal government of potential plans, but a TV reporter spotted a group of private contractors and federal officials touring a 439,945-square-foot industrial warehouse last month. ICE senior advisor David Venturella told a reporter with WFTV at the time that the tour was “exploratory” and that nothing had been decided yet.
In Maryland, ICE purchased a warehouse in a county about 60 miles northwest of Baltimore for $102.4 million, a deed signed last month shows. The deed was unearthed by Project Salt Box, a Maryland ICE watchdog.
Officials in Washington County said in a Facebook post that the Department of Homeland Security sent a letter beforehand that it was considering purchasing the warehouse for use as a “new ICE Baltimore Processing Facility.” Cafeterias, bathrooms, health care spaces, tents and guard shacks could be part of the project, according to the letter that was addressed to historic and planning officials in the county.
The county said there wasn’t much they could do because the federal government generally does not need to respect local zoning regulations that conflict with federal mandates.
In El Paso County, Texas, commissioners on Monday formally expressed opposition to the construction of detention facilities amid reports that ICE is eying a warehouse in the county. Commissioners also said they working with other officials to try to get more details.
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