A secret deal to fund an ICE detention center has been uncovered by state lawmakers in Utah who were left furious at the hushed negotiations.
The Hill reported ICE secretly paid $145 million for a detention center, and the deal was so quiet that even Utah lawmakers didn't know it was happening. The center was proposed as an 830,000-square-foot Salt Lake City warehouse. Councilmember Eva Lopez Chavez told the outlet that the Utah congressional delegation learned of the center's plans by reading about them in the paper.
The deal would have taxpayers effectively fund the construction of the detention center, a plan that Republican U.S. Sen. John Curtis described as "shortsighted." Fellow state lawmakers were horrified by the proposal for an Immigration and Customs Enforcement center in Salt Lake City.
Curtis told Deseret News, "The decision to move forward with this facility via back-door negotiations, bypassing input from local leaders, is shortsighted and likely counterproductive to supporting the strategic growth and long-term infrastructure plans of Salt Lake City’s west side."
Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall urged for the plans to be scrapped, saying a "detention center does not belong in our capital city — full stop. The mass detention of people inside a warehouse is inhumane."
Utah’s Democratic House and Senate caucuses wrote a joint statement on the uncovered plans to plant a deportation facility in the state's capital, writing up their concerns for the community.
They wrote, "These centers arrive with massive enforcement operations that tear through communities, and the conditions that exist within these centers are violent and inhumane."
Veteran Democratic Party strategist Max Burns believes the pitch has faced rightful opposition from citizens of the red state and that the growing concern is what it means for safety in Salt Lake City.
Burns wrote, "Utahns are right to worry about what this deal means for their own safety and prosperity. By trying to slip its latest immigrant detention center past locals in a sketchy secret deal, ICE has only confirmed that it has no interest in the kind of transparency and plain dealing Americans of all political stripes should expect from the federal government.
"If you can only build a detention center under the veil of intense secrecy, you shouldn’t be building it at all."