Federal immigration officials formally acknowledged they will sell a Romulus warehouse planned as a detention facility, a controversial proposal that garnered substantial local pushback and a lawsuit by Michigan leaders.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security indicated in a federal court filing on Monday, June 22 they plan to sell the property. The record is part of a lawsuit over the site filed earlier this year by Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel and Romulus city leaders.
“[DHS and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement] no longer intend to convert the Romulus Warehouse into an immigration detention facility and intend to sell the warehouse,” the filing states.
Last week, the New York Times reported on internal DHS documents indicating the agency planned to sell a slew of warehouses planned as detention facilities. While it did not specifically name the Romulus site, it did say DHS and ICE planned to “offload” warehouses in Michigan.
“The decision to sell the facility is a victory not just for the residents of Romulus whose day-to-day life would have been negatively impacted by its presence, but for the entire metro region,” Nessel said in a recent news release.
“The ICE warehouse proposal was every bit as ill-conceived as it was cruel and unnecessary, and I am relieved that this chapter is coming to a close.”
In February, DHS purchased the building at 7525 Cogswell St. for about $34.7 million, according to city tax records. The same site sold for about $22.1 million in 2023, the same records show.
Quickly after the sale, multiple advocacy groups worked with elected officials and others to coordinate protests. They argued against the site for multiple reasons, saying everything from it lacked the infrastructure needed and shouldn’t be located in an urban area to such facilities are immoral.
“The hundreds of metro Detroiters and others who joined our protests week after week at the ICE camp gate in Romulus have sent a thundering message to every corner of the country,” said Heather Miller, a leader of the Detroit Committee to Stop ICE, after initial news of the sale became public.
“And that message is: If people mobilize in the streets now they can drive out ICE.”
Earlier this year, activists and officials in Van Buren Township worried ICE may also pursue a facility in the western Wayne County community. Officials found a site at 41199 Van Born Road that was included in the 2022 purchase of the same facility ICE ultimately obtained in Romulus.
In February, Van Buren Township records show the board of trustees voted “to defer the review of new applications pertaining to detention centers/private prisons, large industrial projects meeting certain criteria, and power generation facilities.”
But now, township officials are confident the location will not be an ICE facility.
“The federal government never purchased those buildings. We are keeping our eye out to see if there are any plans to still look in the area, but I haven’t heard anything as of yet,” Ron Akers, director of municipal services for the township, told the Free Press in a phone interview Tuesday, June 23.
He said they recently reviewed property records for the site, and found there are six active leases tied to the building that run through 2032.
The federal court filing indicates DHS will update the judge on the Romulus warehouse on or before July 17.
Nearly 2,000 people remain detained related to immigration issues throughout Michigan every day. ICE has a contract to house roughly 1,800 people at a privately run prison in Baldwin, Michigan.
As of April, the North Lake Correctional Facility in Baldwin housed more than 1,400 immigration detainees on average every day, according to public data compiled and published by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University. Four county jails in Michigan also detained a little less than 400 immigrants per day in April.
Reach Dave Boucher at dboucher@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Feds tells court they will sell controversial Romulus immigration site
Reporting by Dave Boucher, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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By Dave Boucher, Detroit Free Press | USA TODAY Network
