The town is calling on the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia to stop the agencies from turning a local industrial warehouse into a 10,000-bed immigration detention facility.
Social Circle officials say the federal government did not consult with them before making the purchase or complete the necessary steps to determine the environmental impact of the project.
The lawsuit says the project would overwhelm Social Circle’s water and sewer capacity, burden local hospitals and create a public nuisance for nearby residents
“If allowed to proceed with their plan to transform Social Circle into the site of one of the nation’s largest immigration detention facilities, Defendants will cause immense and irreparable harm to Social Circle and its residents,” the lawyers wrote in the court filing.
The detention center is part of a $38.6 billion ICE initiative funded by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act facilitating eight such “mega centers” nationwide to enable deportations on a massive scale.
According to the lawsuit, the feds closed on the warehouse Feb. 3 for approximately $128 million, nearly five times the property’s previously assessed value, and originally planned to begin housing ICE detainees by June.
That timeline is no longer certain amid pushback from the city and residents, some of whom have taken to the streets in protest of the project.
Social Circle leaders refused to remove a lock on the water meter at the facility in March in an effort to quash the project until ICE shows it can operate the facility without burdening the town’s infrastructure. According to the lawsuit, they have not done so.
The Department of Homeland Security responded to a request for comment with an unsigned statement: “As with any transition, we are reviewing agency policies and proposals. As Secretary Mullin said in his confirmation hearing: ‘I will work with the community leaders and make sure that we are delivering for the American people what the President set out… We want to work with community leaders. We want to be good partners.’”
Speaking at a debate late last month, Congressman Mike Collins, who represents the area, expressed sympathy with town officials opposed to the project.
“When you take a look at Social Circle, and they wanted to do their part to help, but at the end of the day, they didn’t have the resources,” he said.
