ICE is buying up warehouses across the country to build a massive network of detention centers.
Hundreds of millions of dollars have already been spent to create huge immigrant jails, often in small towns, Bloomberg reports. The agency paid $102 million spent for a warehouse near Hagerstown, Maryland, and $70 million in cash paid for a warehouse in Surprise, Arizona.
And that’s just the cost to purchase the buildings—ICE also has to pay to turn them into jails with bathrooms, beds, dining, and recreation facilities. A third warehouse purchase in El Paso, Texas, could be one of the largest jails in the U.S. when completed, housing 8,500 beds.
ICE plans to use up to 23 warehouses around the country to detain immigrants in even more cities, including in Minnesota, Indiana, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. The new strategy is a shift for ICE and the Department of Homeland Security, which has been relying on many tent camps such as the notorious “Alligator Alcatraz” in south Florida.
People who live near the proposed jails are pushing back against the plan, with protesters showing up in Hagerstown to protest on January 20 despite freezing temperatures. In Oklahoma City, the owners of a warehouse backed out of a deal Thursday to build an ICE facility following local backlash to the plan. Similarly, the owners of a warehouse in Salt Lake City announced they had “no plans to sell or lease the property in question to the federal government” after protesters showed up at their offices.
In all, there have been protests or packed public meetings in at least 15 communities ICE is planning to build a facility, The Washington Post reports. In many places, state and local officials are arguing that these detention centers would be a threat to public safety, strain local infrastructure, and violate zoning laws. And ICE has a history of failing to meet government standards for detention facilities: At one of its tent camps in El Paso, Texas, last September, inspectors found 60 different violations.
ICE’s warehouse plan is full of flaws, but the chief obstacle is the opposition from local residents that only grows with every negative ICE headline. Will this mega network of warehouse jails get built, and will they even be safe to house thousands of people, including possibly U.S. citizens?
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