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In a Texas town at the edge of the Rio Grande and a tall metal border wall, rumors swirled that federal\u00a0immigrationofficials wanted to purchase three hulking warehouses to\u00a0transform into a detention center.<\/p>\n
As\u00a0local officials scrambled\u00a0to find out what was happening, a deed was filed showing the Department of Homeland Security had already inked a $122.8 million deal for the 826,000-square-foot (76,738-square-meter) warehouses in Socorro, a bedroom community of 40,000 people outside El Paso.<\/p>\n
\u201cNobody from the federal government bothered to pick up the phone or even send us any type of correspondence letting us know what\u2019s about to take place,\u201d said Rudy Cruz Jr., the mayor of the predominantly Hispanic town of low-slung ranch homes and trailer parks, where orchards and irrigation ditches share the landscape with strip malls, truck stops, recycling plants and distribution warehouses.<\/p>\n
Socorro is among at least 20 communities with large warehouses across the U.S. that have become stealth targets for Immigration and Customs Enforcement\u2019s $45-billion\u00a0expansion of detention centers.<\/p>\n
As\u00a0public support\u00a0for the agency and President Donald Trump\u2019s immigration crackdown\u00a0sags,\u00a0communities are objecting to mass detentions and raising concerns that the facilities could strain water supplies and other services while reducing local tax revenue. In many cases, mayors, county commissioners, governors and members of Congress learned about ICE\u2019s ambitions only after the agency bought or leased space for detainees, leading to shock and frustration even in areas that have backed Trump.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just feel,\u201d said Cruz, whose wife was born in Mexico, \u201cthat they do these things in silence so that they don\u2019t get opposition.\u201d<\/p>\n
ICE, which is part of DHS, has purchased at least seven warehouses in Arizona, Georgia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Texas, signed deeds show. Other deals have been announced but not yet finalized, though buyers scuttled sales in eight locations.<\/p>\n
DHS objected to calling the sites warehouses, stressing in a statement that they would be \u201cvery well structured detention facilities meeting our regular detention standards.\u201d<\/p>\n
The process has been chaotic at times. ICE this past week acknowledged it made a \u201cmistake\u201d when it announced warehouse purchases in Chester, New York, and Roxbury, New Jersey. Roxbury then announced Friday that the sale there had closed.<\/p>\n
DHS has confirmed it is looking for more detention space but hasn\u2019t disclosed individual sites ahead of acquisitions. Some cities learned that ICE was scouting warehouses through reporters. Others were tipped off by a spreadsheet circulating online among activists whose source is unclear.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t until Feb. 13 that the scope of the warehouse project was confirmed, when the governor\u2019s office in New Hampshire, where there is backlash to a planned 500-bed processing center, released a document from ICE showing the agency plans to spend $38.3 billion\u00a0to boost detention capacity to 92,000 beds.<\/p>\n
Since Trump took office, the number of people detained by ICE has increased to 75,000 from 40,000, spread across more than 225 sites.<\/p>\n
ICE could use the warehouses to consolidate and to increase capacity. The document describes a project that includes eight large-scale detention centers, capable of housing 7,000 to 10,000 detainees each, and 16 smaller regional processing centers. The document also refers to the acquisition of 10 existing \u201cturnkey\u201d facilities.<\/p>\n
The project is funded through\u00a0the big tax and spending cuts bill\u00a0passed by Congress last year that\u00a0nearly doubled DHS\u2019 budget.\u00a0To build the detention centers, the Trump administration is using military contracts.<\/p>\n
Those contracts allow a lot of secrecy and for DHS to move quickly without following the usual processes and safeguards, said Charles Tiefer, a professor emeritus of law at the University of Baltimore Law School.<\/p>\n
In Socorro, the ICE-owned warehouses are so large that 4 1\/2 Walmart Supercenters could fit inside, standing in contrast to the remnants of the austere Spanish colonial and mission architecture that defines the town.<\/p>\n
At a recent City Council meeting, public comments stretched for hours. \u201cI think a lot of innocent people are getting caught up in their dragnet,\u201d said Jorge Mendoza, an El Paso County retiree whose grandparents immigrated from Mexico.<\/p>\n
Many speakers invoked concerns about\u00a0three recent deaths\u00a0at an ICE detention facility at the nearby Fort Bliss Army base.<\/p>\n
Even communities that backed Trump in 2024 have been caught off guard by ICE\u2019s plans and have raised concerns.<\/p>\n
In rural Pennsylvania\u2019s Berks County, commissioner Christian Leinbach called the district attorney, the sheriff, the jail warden and the county\u2019s head of emergency services when he first heard ICE might buy a warehouse in Upper Bern Township, 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) from his home.<\/p>\n
No one knew anything.<\/p>\n
A few days later, a local official in charge of land records informed him that ICE had bought the building \u2014\u00a0promoted\u00a0by developers as a \u201cstate-of-the art logistics center\u201d \u2014 for $87.4 million.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was absolutely no warning,\u201d Leinbach said during a meeting in which he raised concerns that turning the warehouse into a federal facility means a loss of more than $800,000 in local tax dollars.<\/p>\n
ICE has touted the income taxes its workers would pay, though the facilities themselves will be exempt from property taxes.<\/p>\n
In Social Circle, Georgia, which also strongly supported Trump in 2024, officials were stunned by ICE\u2019s plans for a facility that could hold 7,500 to 10,000 people after first learning about it through a reporter.<\/p>\n
The city, which has a population of just 5,000 and worries about the infrastructure needs for such a detention center, only heard from DHS after the $128.6 million sale of a 1 million-square-foot (92,900-square-meter) warehouse was completed. Like Socorro and Berks County, Social Circle questioned whether the water and sewage system could keep up.<\/p>\n
ICE has said it did due diligence to ensure the sites don\u2019t overwhelm city utilities. But Social Circle said the agency\u2019s analysis relied on a yet-to-be built sewer treatment plant.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be clear, the City has repeatedly communicated that it does not have the capacity or resources to accommodate this demand, and no proposal presented to date has demonstrated otherwise,\u201d the city said in\u00a0a statement.<\/p>\n
And in the Phoenix suburb of Surprise, officials sent a scathing letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem after ICE without warning bought a massive warehouse in a residential area about a mile from a high school. Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, a Democrat, raised the prospect of going to court to have the site declared a public nuisance.<\/p>\n
Back in Socorro, people waiting to speak against the ICE facility spilled out of the City Council chambers, some standing beside murals paying tribute to the World War II-era Braceros Program that allowed Mexican farmworkers to be guest workers in the U.S. The program stoked Socorro\u2019s economy and population before President Dwight D. Eisenhower\u2019s administration\u00a0in the 1950s\u00a0began mass deportations aimed at people who had crossed the border illegally.<\/p>\n
Eduardo Castillo, formerly an attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice, told city officials it is intimidating but \u201cnot impossible\u201d to challenge the federal government.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you don\u2019t at least try,\u201d he said, \u201cyou will end up with another inhumane detention facility built in your jurisdiction and under your watch.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
#communities #large #warehouses #stealth #targets #massive #ICE #detention #centers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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