Michigan’s two Democratic U.S. senators, Gary Peters and Elissa Slotkin, wrote a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Wednesday, Feb. 25, asking that plans for a warehouse in Romulus to be turned into a detention facility for immigrants be dropped.
“This warehouse facility is not zoned for or developed to house individuals. We are concerned about the safety of detainees and employees, especially at a time when ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) is struggling to provide adequate conditions at its existing facilities,” the senators wrote.
“Accordingly, we urge the department to reverse plans to use this site as a detention facility,” they added.
Officials for the Department of Homeland Security and ICE, which is part of DHS, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the letter by the Free Press.
As members of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, Peters − who is the committee’s top ranking Democrat − and Slotkin have an advantage in taking the department to task, since the panel oversees its operations. But Democrats remain in the minority in the Senate and on the committee, giving them less sway in making demands on the agency, absent support from their Republican colleagues.
Protesters have been rallying in Romulus, demanding that the plans for the proposed detention center at the warehouse on Cogswell Road be dropped even as ICE steps up its efforts to open and expand facilities to handle immigrants President Donald Trump’s administration says are in the U.S. illegally and must be deported.
In their letter, Peters and Slotkin said Romulus City Council unanimously opposed use of the warehouse as a detention facility in a vote on Monday, Feb. 23. They also referenced a letter sent to the department by Romulus Mayor Robert McCraight in which he said the city hadn’t been formally notified about the plans as he said is generally required under federal law and that use of the site for a detention facility may violate local zoning laws.
The federal government is typically exempt from federal zoning laws, though Congress could, if it desired, preempt the Trump administration from using a particular site. A lawsuit challenging use of the site is possible as well, should the Trump administration move forward over local objections.
“A detention facility would unquestionably place increased demands on the city’s emergency services, such as ambulance and EMT, in addition to services like sewer, water and electricity,” the senators wrote. Later in the letter, they added, “(W)hile zoned for light industrial use, the facility is surrounded by residential housing. To operate a detention facility, ICE will require frequent travel for employees, deliveries of food, clothing and other consumables, as well as the transport of detainees, all of which could significantly impact the ability of local residents to traverse their streets.”
Peters and Slotkin asked the department to provide further details about the plans, including its capacity and staffing levels, along with a projected opening date, by March 11.
Contact Todd Spangler: tspangler@freepress.com. Follow him on X @tsspangler.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan senators urge ICE to drop plans for Romulus detention center
Reporting by Todd Spangler, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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