Officials in a Georgia city have locked Immigration and Customs Enforcement out of accessing the local water supply for the agency’s planned mega-detention facility.
ICE’s plans to open a detention center in Social Circle, Georgia, first became public in December, when the Washington Post reported that the Trump administration aims to overhaul the immigration detention system by renovating seven large-scale warehouses to hold 5,000 to 10,000 people each.
‘The lock is there until ICE indicates how water and sewer will be served without exceeding our limited infrastructure capacity.’
The warehouses will reportedly be located in major logistics hubs: Virginia, Texas, Louisiana, Arizona, Georgia, and Missouri. ICE would also establish other smaller warehouses capable of holding 1,500 people each.
According to the Post, ICE plans to establish a feeder system in which individuals would be booked into smaller processing sites and then funneled into one of the seven larger detention facilities for holding while they await deportation. This new system reportedly aims to speed up deportations.
The Post’s article revealed that one of those mega-centers would be located in Social Circle, a plan which city officials have called “infeasible,” citing limitations on local water and sewer infrastructure.
“The mayor and city council of the City of Social Circle unequivocally does not support an ICE detention facility in the city or the surrounding areas,” the city said in a December statement.
Later reports revealed that the DHS is planning eight large detention centers, not seven.
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Photo by Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images
Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) and Social Circle Mayor David Keener released a joint statement in January insisting that the detention facility is “not right for Social Circle, and the City of Social Circle does not support it.”
“We are urging the administration to abandon this plan, which risks overwhelming the city’s resources and more than tripling its population,” the joint statement reads.
Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) joined local leaders in opposing the planned facility.
“Folks in Social Circle voted for this president overwhelmingly,” Warnock stated March 3. “But here’s what they didn’t vote for — they didn’t vote for a 10,000-person detention center that will triple the size of their town, to place a massive detention center next to an elementary school. They didn’t vote for potential ‘boil water’ advisories or sewer overflows because this administration has overstrained their city’s resources. They didn’t vote for their voices to be unheard and trampled by their own federal government.”
In early February, Social Circle confirmed that ICE had purchased a facility within the city and that local officials had met with the Department of Homeland Security to discuss the plan.
The city claimed the DHS plans to “fully implement” its new detention center model, which involves transitioning from private operations to government-owned facilities, by the end of the fiscal year.
“DHS plans to implement a ‘Hub and Spoke Model,’ in which four smaller processing facilities will feed into the larger detention facilities,” the city said. “The proposed facility in Social Circle is identified as one of eight ‘mega centers’ that will be located across the nation. Overall, ICE intends to reduce its number of facilities from approximately 300 to 34 nationwide. The facility in Social Circle is expected to house anywhere from 7,500 to 10,000 detainees and will be constructed using a modular design so that capacity can be scaled up or down as needed.”
The city stated that the facility will employ roughly 2,000 to 2,500 staff members and include holding areas, gyms, recreational spaces, court facilities, intake areas, cafeterias, laundry facilities, health services, and a gun range.
Social Circle estimated that ICE will begin intake at the detention center between mid-May and June.
Photographer: Elijah Nouvelage/Bloomberg via Getty Images
DHS reportedly committed that the facility will have “no adverse effect on the community and surrounding properties”; however, city officials are not convinced, claiming that concerns about its water and sewage capacity have not been addressed to their satisfaction.
“Documents provided by DHS indicate this detention facility alone would have a sewage demand of 1,001,683 gallons per day. The city’s current wastewater system processes 660,000 gallons a day and is already operating at capacity. It cannot accommodate an increase in usage of this magnitude,” the city stated.
While Social Circle plans to build a sewer treatment plant that would initially increase its capacity by 1.5 million gallons per day, construction has not yet begun, and it is projected to take one year to 18 months to complete.
As a result, city officials have opted to cut off water and sewer services to ICE’s facility by locking the water meter serving the warehouse.
“The lock is there until ICE indicates how water and sewer will be served without exceeding our limited infrastructure capacity,” Social Circle said Monday.
Blaze News requested comment from the city regarding whether it or any other local or state government entity was required to review or approve the sale of the warehouse to ICE.
“The federal government acted unilaterally to acquire the property. Nobody from the city was consulted prior to purchase,” City Manager Eric Taylor replied.
Walton County told Blaze News that it “had no correspondence or communication with the federal government, the Department of Homeland Security, or any private contractors regarding the detention center’s establishment.”
“The facility in question is located within the city limits of Social Circle. Consequently, all planning, zoning, and land use matters fall under the exclusive jurisdiction of the City of Social Circle,” the county stated. “There was no requirement for Walton County to review, approve, or sign off on the purchase of the warehouse. As this is a private property transaction within city limits, the county was not a party to the sale or any associated federal agreements.”
Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp’s office stated, “As this is a federal project the state has no involvement in, I would have to refer you to the Department of Homeland Security for more information.”
DHS did not respond to a request for comment.
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News, Immigration and customs enforcement, Ice, Department of homeland security, Dhs, Social circle georgia, Georgia, Ice facility, Ice detention center, Immigration crisis, Illegal immigration crisis, Immigration, Illegal immigration, Politics
