Several communities across the country are celebrating after Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced it was withdrawing plans for seven immigration detention centers. The move comes after Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin took over after Kristi Noem’s firing.
ICE had previously said it was purchasing more than a dozen empty warehouses to expand its capacity to detain people it said were illegally in the country. Eleven of those facilities cost the government about $1 billion, according to The New York Times.
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But now the agency said it’s planning to get rid of seven of those warehouses it purchased for more than $700 million by either handing them over to other federal agencies or selling them, according to The Times. The warehouse plan was a major part of Noem’s mass deportation initiative. But Mullin privately expressed skepticism about the plan, The Times said. Mullin said he prefers the agency adopt a more discreet approach to executing its immigration enforcement duties.
Why is ICE selling its facilities?
Since the plan’s adoption, ICE has seen numerous lawsuits over environmental concerns and Homeland Security, the department that oversees ICE, has opened an investigation into the purchases.
Since becoming DHS secretary, Mullin has improved communication between ICE and communities where facilities are planned, according to Jonny Melton, a city councilmember from Surprise, Arizona, who spoke to Straight Arrow by phone. Surprise is one of the cities where ICE said it’s still planning to build a facility.
“The biggest change was just lines of communication,” Melton told Straight Arrow. “We didn’t have lines of communication under Secretary Noem.”
Surprise is one of many communities legally challenging the construction of the detention centers. In late April, Arizona state Attorney General Kris Mayes sued DHS, Mullin and ICE, among other groups, to block the facility. In a press release, Mayes said that her office would “do everything in our power” to protect the health and safety of its community.
“The federal government did not ask the people of Surprise whether they wanted this facility in their backyards,” Mayes wrote. “They simply bought a warehouse, handed a $300 million contract to a private company and told the City to deal with it.”
One facility where ICE announced it was canceling its plans was in Romulus, Michigan. Like Arizona, the state’s attorney general sued to block the facility. After the announcement, the city praised the decision.
“We want to thank DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin for listening to us and taking into consideration the issues that would have made this the wrong location for a detention facility,” Romulus Mayor Robert McCraight said, according to The Detroit News.
“The City’s position should not be confused with opposition to responsible enforcement of our country’s laws,” McCraight continued. “Instead, the facility’s proximity to residential neighborhoods, schools, and wetlands made it the wrong location.”
These are the facilities ICE is, and isn’t, getting rid of for now
According to documents, ICE plans to hand over or sell seven locations, including the one in Romulus. The others include: Social Circle and Flowery Branch, Georgia; Hamburg and Tremont, Pennsylvania; Salt Lake City and Roxbury, New Jersey.
ICE still appears to be moving forward with four locations it’s purchased for detention purposes, according to The Times. These include: Surprise, San Antonio and Socorro, Texas; and Hagerstown, Maryland. But a federal judge in Maryland blocked work on the facility there. The specific reasoning behind the agency’s choice to maintain progress at those four particular sites remained uncertain.
Still, Melton believes that discussions may continue and that a final decision on the facility in Surprise may come later. What that is is left to be seen.
“They just haven’t announced what they’re going to do, how they’re going to move forward,” Melton told Straight Arrow. ”I don’t think they’re going to walk away from it. They paid too much for it, but they could. They could repurpose it, or they can move forward as planned. And we don’t know either one. We just don’t know.”
Where does this leave Trump’s mass deportation plan?
Canceling detention facilities doesn’t mean the Trump administration is ending its immigration plans. Many deportees remain in detention as they await final deportation orders.
But both legal and illegal immigration have fallen dramatically since President Donald Trump returned to office. So it may be that ICE may not need as many detention facilities as it initially thought it did.
Detainees have also been moved from the controversial Alligator Alcatraz, located in the Florida Everglades. DHS said this was due to hurricane season starting, but The Associated Press noted that the center opened during the height of last year’s hurricane season.
As the debate continues around ICE detention centers, Melton emphasized that the idea has left many of his residents, from both sides of the political spectrum, concerned over the prospect of having a prison in their backyard.
“There are plenty in my community who don’t like this, having nothing to do with politics,” he told Straight Arrow. “They’re proposing to put a prison, a short-term detention facility, in city limits. This is pretty shocking to the public.”
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