States are suing to foil ICE’s warehouse detention plan. Not Georgia.
Under President Donald Trump, federal authorities have unveiled a new model for immigration detention: acquiring sprawling industrial warehouses across the country with the intent of converting them into Immigration and Customs Enforcement lockups.
In recent weeks, four of the eight states selected as future sites of the massive detention facilities have sued to block the ICE project in their territories, claiming the administration failed to perform required environmental reviews.
All four — New Jersey, Michigan, Maryland and Arizona — are led by Democrats. In a fifth Democratic-led state, Pennsylvania, a state agency has barred ICE from connecting to water or sewer services.
Georgia officials have not taken steps to stop the warehouse initiative, despite staunch opposition from the two communities impacted in metro Atlanta, Social Circle and Oakwood. Local leaders in both cities have argued that their infrastructure isn’t equipped to serve large-scale detention facilities.
The warehouse project could bring up to 10,000 new immigrant detainees to Georgia. That is tied for most nationwide, with Texas and Utah.
In response to questions from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution about the possibility of Georgia joining the legal fight, Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr’s office tried to support both sides. Carr is a Republican running for governor.
“Attorney General Carr supports well-funded, well-secured ICE detention facilities in Georgia, located in communities that want them and are prepared to host them,” the statement says. “There are tens of thousands of violent criminals in this country illegally and removing them must be a priority.”
Eric Taylor, Social Circle’s city manager, says he has received no indication the state will get involved in the city’s fight against the new detention center.
“They have shown no inclination at any level to assist the city in any way,” Taylor said. “All these other states that are suing, they’re essentially covering the legal costs for these jurisdictions that want to move forward (with a lawsuit), right?
“And for us, being as small as we are, any legal action that we take, we’re going to have to bear it on our own. And that’s just another way that we’re getting hit.”
In fact, Taylor said state authorities have told him they are powerless to fight the warehouse plan. Georgia has a Republican governor and Republican majorities in both the state House and Senate.
“We just get the same comment back to us that it’s a federal issue that they have no control over, which I don’t agree with,” Taylor said. “I understand that it’s a federal issue, but the state also has a responsibility to make sure that the quality of life of the residents of the state are taken care of.”
He added: “By not supporting us or Oakwood, they’re essentially saying that we’re on our own.”
Both of Georgia’s Democratic U.S. Senators have supported the cities in their opposition to the facilities.
Legal challenges aside, it is unclear what the future holds for ICE’s warehouse project, even in Georgia.
Amid a change of leadership at the Department of Homeland Security, the administration signaled last month that it had paused its plans to move forward and that no new warehouses would be purchased.
States’ lawsuits are centering on ICE’s failure to conduct environmental impact reviews of the new detention facilities as required under the National Environmental Policy Act.
In Maryland, the Trump administration has argued that it is exempt from performing a review. In Michigan and New Jersey, it has indicated that it would move forward with reviews — a process that could take months.
B.R. White, city manager for Oakwood, told the AJC in a statement that the city has made multiple attempts to ask ICE to share any environmental reviews conducted for its facility there. Those requests have gone unanswered, he said.
That “leads me to believe the studies do not exist for Oakwood,” White said.
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