Battle over detention warehouses

The federal government has already spent $1.074 billion on 11 warehouses it wants to turn into immigration detention sites, and the buying spree hit pause only after a wave of local resistance and a contract review by Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin. The idea looks simple on paper: buy a giant empty box near highways and retrofit it fast. On the ground, each warehouse still needs water, sewage, roads, inspectors, contractors, and a town willing to absorb a jail-sized facility that was never in its plans. In Surprise, Arizona, the Department of Homeland Security paid $70 million cash for a 418,000-square-foot warehouse, and later documents described a processing center for an average of 1,000 to 1,500 people a day. After backlash, city officials said the federal plan had been scaled back to 250 people per week with occupied beds capped at 542. In Social Circle, Georgia, the numbers were even bigger. The city said a federally purchased warehouse could hold 7,500 to 10,000 detainees, and local officials responded by locking the site’s water meter because they feared the project would overwhelm the town’s water system. That is the pattern showing up around the country: cities often cannot directly veto federal immigration detention, so they fight over the pieces they do control, like utilities, permits, inspections, traffic, procurement records, and public hearings. The Marshall Project described five hours of public testimony in Surprise, where more than 100 residents pressed those local pressure points. Some of the pushback is coming from Democrats, but not only Democrats. In Surprise, conservative activist Lisa Everett, a three-time Trump voter, told The Marshall Project she supported tougher border enforcement but opposed building huge detention sites that could sweep in nonviolent community members and leave them in prolonged detention. Some communities are moving from protest to court. On March 20, 2026, New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill, Attorney General Jennifer Davenport, and Roxbury Township sued Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security to stop a warehouse conversion, arguing the agencies ignored state and local concerns about water, sewage, public safety, and environmental review. Illinois is trying a different route by changing state law before the next warehouse deal arrives. On April 9, 2026, the Illinois House passed House Bill 5024 by a 72-35-2 vote, and the bill would bar a new detention center from operating within 1,500 feet of homes, schools, day care sites, parks, forest preserves, cemeteries, or places of worship. Illinois lawmakers wrote the bill to hit future sites, not existing ones. The Broadview processing center in House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch’s district would stay open because the measure is not retroactive, and Illinois already bans privately owned immigration detention centers under earlier state law. The catch is that federal projects often claim immunity from local zoning rules, which is why even supporters of the Illinois bill expect a legal fight. That is why this story keeps moving on two tracks at once: neighborhood campaigns that can slow a project in real time, and state lawsuits and legislation that try to raise the cost of doing it anywhere else.