A Canadian business has backed out of a deal to sell a Virginia warehouse to the federal government, after learning the building would be used as a detention center for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
According to the Vancouver Sun, "Jim Pattison Developments says it won’t sell a warehouse in Virginia to U.S. Homeland Security to be used by its Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency as a detention centre. In an email Friday, the company said 'the transaction to sell our industrial building in Ashland, Virginia, will not be proceeding.' The company did not comment further about why that decision had been made."
This comes after a series of protests and boycott threats over the sale, as people nationwide gear up for the "ICE Out" protests in response to a brutal and often deadly crackdown by federal agents around the country.
Per Jim Pattison Developments, they had initially not known the purpose the government intended to use the warehouse for.
ICE is increasingly turning to using warehouses as detention facilities. The agency purchased a similar structure in Surprise, Arizona, for $70 million earlier this week.