Roxbury residents outraged following reports DHS signed $32 million contract for local ICE detention center

The Roxbury Town Council adjourning their meeting early Tuesday night as tensions grew. An angry crowd protesting against the possibility of an ICE detention center coming to their community. Earlier this year, the state of New Jersey and Roxbury Township sued the Department of Homeland Security to stop them from converting a local warehouse into a mass detention facility. Back in May, a federal court ruled that DHS could not move forward with their plans for This warehouse without conducting an environmental impact study first. This week, though, Roxbury Town Council confirmed that DHS signed a contract worth almost $32 million to convert the property. Under the agreement, DHS is permitted to do limited work, but the multi-million dollar contract has reignited residents' concerns that the federal government is attempting to move forward prematurely. It shows. DHS and ICE's bad faith, before they have received the results of an environmental study, they've already prejudged that they can go ahead and create this facility. David Broderick is an attorney for an organization called No Ice in North Jersey, or Project Ninja. They're treating the environmental issues as sort of a sideshow that can be sidestepped, whereas we believe that they're important enough and they're serious enough that This facility is just not feasible. Project Ninja, along with other local advocates, stationed a rotating guard outside the facility to watch for ICE activity. In October, Rep. Ana Lilia Mejia confirmed ICE used the parking lot of the warehouse to process detainees on at least two occasions. For now, Roxbury Town Council vowing to find out more about the contract, telling News 12 in a statement, quote, there is no township official who supports the establishment of this facility in Roxbury and protecting our residents, their property and their resources is at the heart of this suit. In Roxbury, Christine Quayley, News 12, New Jersey.