A suburban town outside Atlanta has sued the Department of Homeland Security and ICE for its plans to open an ICE detention warehouse for 10,000 migrants in their town of less than 5,500 residents.
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The lawsuit filed by the town of Social Circle, Georgia, alleges ICE’s new facility will overburden the town’s small infrastructure resulting in “dry taps and raw human waste spills.”
Town officials also alleged that ICE’s actions have broken state and federal laws in their effort to develop and convert a massive local warehouse into a mega detention center that cost $128 million in taxpayer money to purchase.
The lawsuit says that ICE representatives told the town the facility would open by June of 2026 but no construction to convert the facility has begun. It adds that the price that ICE paid for the Georgia facility was more than five times the property’s previously assessed value.
“As with any transition, we are reviewing agency policies and proposals,” a DHS spokesperson said, referring to the recent confirmation of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, who replaced Kristi Noem at the end of March.
“As Secretary Mullin said in his confirmation hearing: ‘I will work with the community leaders and make sure that we are delivering for the American people what the President set out… We want to work with community leaders. We want to be good partners.’”
Social Circle is located in Walton County, where 72% of residents voted for Trump in the last election.
Trump’s approval rating on immigration grew after a dramatic decline earlier this year, according to April polling from NBC News. While the promise of mass deportations was a major plank of his 2024 campaign, the president and his administration faced a barrage of criticism after federal immigration officials shot and killed two U.S. citizens in Minnesota.
The Georgia warehouse is part of a larger nationwide plan by ICE to develop eight large-scale detention centers, 16 new processing facilities and acquire 10 “turnkey” facilities to house 92,600 more immigrants. It is costing ICE $38.3 billion, according to an ICE overview of the plan included in court documents filed in the case.
The plan has drawn pushback from towns, residents and lawmakers in numerous areas, including New Jersey, Maryland, Mississippi and Arizona.
ICE says the newly converted warehouses are part of a “long-term detention solution” and detainees will spend an average of 60 days at the locations, according to an ICE proposal included with the court filing from Social Circle.
The DHS Inspector General is now looking into the purchase of ICE’s mega warehouses around the country as part of a newly announced audit examining whether or not DHS met the need for new detention space in a “cost-effective manner.”
The country’s largest operating ICE detention facility, Camp East Montana, in El Paso Texas, currently holds more than 2,500 inmates. It has faced criticism after three people died in 40 days there, with the most recent death taking place in January.
“ICE is committed to ensuring that all those in custody reside in safe, secure, and humane environments,” DHS previously said in response to the deaths at Camp East Montana.
“Comprehensive medical care is provided from the moment individuals arrive and throughout their stay,” including medical, dental and mental health screenings when they arrive, the statement added. “At no time during detention is a detained noncitizen denied emergency care.”
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