A planned expansion of immigrant detention infrastructure through the conversion of industrial warehouses into immigrant jails has largely been scrapped by the Trump administration.
That includes Georgia, where the Department of Homeland Security spent nearly $200 million purchasing warehouses in the tiny cities of Social Circle in Walton County and Oakwood in Hall County, according to a Social Circle official who was briefed on the decision.
The New York Times was first to report that most of the warehouses purchased by DHS for conversion will be sold or given away. That story did not mention either of the Georgia warehouses specifically.
But roughly four months after the federal purchase of two industrial warehouses in Georgia, U.S. Rep. Mike Collins communicated to local leaders that the properties will no longer be converted into immigrant detention centers, as had been originally intended.
That plan, part of a nationwide revamp of the immigration detention system meant to boost deportations, had sparked widespread backlash in both Social Circle and Oakwood.
Social Circle City Manager Eric Taylor said he first heard about a possible change at the end of May. Taylor told the AJC that he then contacted Collins, who confirmed the information. Collins did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the AJC on Thursday.
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Taylor then reached out to sources in the U.S. Congress for confirmation. He said U.S. Rep. Mike Collins called to let city officials know the reports were true. The congressional district of the newly minted Republican nominee in this year’s U.S. Senate race represents Social Circle.
DHS officials responded to AJC questions about the Georgia warehouses with a statement that did not address the queries.
“From day one, DHS has remained singularly focused on removing the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens from the United States and is always evaluating the best methods to do so,” the statement says. “These heinous criminals, once arrested, should be removed at lightning speed, not housed on American soil at the taxpayer’s expense.
“DHS is moving swiftly to utilize EXISTING detention space with our state and county partners.”
In addition to the purchase price, converting the warehouses into spaces that could safely and humanely imprison humans would have cost additional hundreds of millions of dollars. City officials in both Social Circle and Oakwood said their municipal infrastructure could not support the facilities.
Thursday’s story in The New York Times said the Trump administration planned to offload seven of the eleven warehouses it had recently purchased across the country for immigrant detention, including facilities in Michigan and New Jersey. It attributed the decision to the recent change of leadership at DHS.
The warehouse detention project had been greenlit under the previous homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, who was brash in the pursuit of surging deportations. The new secretary, Markwayne Mullin, has stated that he wants the agency to work with community leaders and “be good partners.”
For Taylor, news of ICE’s retreat led to “huge relief.”
But he said it is tempered by the federal government’s failure to provide written confirmation of their decision. Taylor said he doesn’t expect that, anyway, given the lack of official communication about the fate of the Social Circle warehouse since ICE first showed interest in it.
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
“They never put anything in writing,” Taylor said. “Since we got informed directly by Congressman Collins, you know, we feel like that’s enough to go on.”
Social Circle issued a statement Thursday saying the property “could be sold if there are no other federal agencies that express interest in the property. While the exact process has not been confirmed ... the City is hopeful that the property will ultimately return to the local tax base and once again contribute to the economic vitality and long-term success of the Social Circle community.”
Oakwood city leadership heard of the Trump administration’s decision from their Social Circle partners. They have not been able to confirm it with Oakwood’s representative in the House, U.S. Rep. Andrew Clyde.
“For several weeks now rumors out of D.C. are that the warehouse to detention center program is being shuttered in Georgia and elsewhere across the U.S.,” said B.R. White, Oakwood’s city manager. “If the program is halting, I’ll believe it when I see it in writing and the property goes up for sale.”
Sen. Warnock released a statement on Thursday celebrating the DHS reversal.
The senator had appealed to agency leadership to drop the warehouse program. He had also filed an amendment that would have blocked facilities being turned into detention centers.
“I was proud to elevate the concerns of the people of Social Circle and Oakwood over the past four months to pressure the administration to backtrack on their dangerous plans,” the statement says. “The people of Social Circle and Oakwood didn’t vote for me, but I still fought for them because I was elected to serve all Georgians.”
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