'Hopefully they learned their lesson': Rural Georgia town bashes DHS's attempted takeover
An elected official in a small, rural town in east Georgia bashed President Donald Trump's Department of Homeland Security after local residents defeated the department's attempt to turn a local warehouse into one of the nation's largest deportation centers, according to a new report.
Trump's DHS had planned to open a 10,000-person deportation facility in Social Circle, Georgia, which is about an hour drive east of Atlanta, until local leaders like city manager Eric Taylor decided to fight back. In February, Taylor shut off water to the warehouse Trump's DHS had purchased for the center. He has also reached out to Georgia Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, both Democrats, and Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA), who is running against Ossoff in the November election, to help stop the Trump administration's scheme, the Guardian reported.
"I never thought I’d have to deal with anything of this magnitude,” Taylor told the outlet. “It’s amazing the focus on this small town, just minding its own business.”
Last year, Trump's DHS purchased a warehouse in Social Circle for roughly $128 million, or nearly five times the warehouse's appraised value, for its deportation agenda. At the time, Social Circle residents pushed back because the warehouse would have tripled the small town's population when it operated at full capacity, which would have put a significant strain on the local drinking water supply and emergency services.
But Trump's administration dropped that plan, even though the warehouse was one of seven in the surrounding area that were purchased for deportations.
The pushback seemed to resonate with Social Circle residents, even though three-quarters of the city's residents voted for Trump in the 2024 election, according to The Guardian.
“Hopefully they’ve learned their lesson here and communicate with us from the very beginning," Taylor said.