Multiple communities have hit back hard against the Trump administration as it seeks to expand its capacity to detain migrants across the nation, with at least one successful in shutting down an effort to turn a 26-acre warehouse into a migrant processing center, The Washington Post reported Friday.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement is working to convert industrial buildings into detention centers across 23 different towns, an effort that would expand its detention capacity by 80,000.
One such effort materialized last month after DHS altered a plan to purchase a 26-acre warehouse and transform it into a migrant processing center. News of the planned purchase spread fast, and sparked outrage among locals, outrage strong enough that the purchase ultimately fell through.
In a Facebook post, Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt announced that he had spoken with the owner of the 26-acre property, and that they had confirmed to him that they were “no longer engaged with DHS about a potential acquisition or lease” of the property.
“I commend the owners for their decision and thank them on behalf of the people of Oklahoma City,” Holt wrote in a social media post on Facebook. “As Mayor, I ask that every single property owner in Oklahoma City exhibit the same concern for our community in the days ahead.”
Another target for ICE is Kansas City, Missouri, where officials are planning to transform a warehouse into a migrant detention facility with an inmate capacity of 7,500. When news broke of ICE’s plans for the property on Jan. 15, the Kansas City City Council voted that same day to institute a five-year ban on “all new nonmunicipal detention facilities,” the Post reported.
“I’m not sure that this is the type of detention that is humane,” said Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas when asked about ICE’s plans to transform a warehouse in his city to a migrant detention facility, the Post reported.
Tricia McLaughlin, the assistant secretary for DHS, brushed off concerns over ICE’s plans when asked by the Post.
“It should not come as news that ICE will be making arrests in states across the U.S. and is actively working to expand detention space,” she told the Post in a statement.
