Federal immigration officials plan to “offload” a warehouse in Romulus and other similar sites across the U.S., an abrupt reversal to a plan that had garnered substantial local resistance, according to a report in The New York Times.
The Times report, published Thursday, June 18, states U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement “plans to offload warehouses in Michigan and New Jersey, the documents obtained by The Times show.”
The story indicates that means ICE could give the properties to another agency or sell them outright.
The Free Press has not independently obtained these documents. In response to Free Press questions about the Romulus site, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security provided a broad statement.
“From day one, DHS has remained singularly focused on removing the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens from the United States and is always evaluating the best methods to do so. These heinous criminals, once arrested, should be removed at lightning speed, not housed on American soil at the taxpayer’s expense. DHS is moving swiftly to utilize EXISTING detention space with our state and county partners,” said a statement attributed to an unnamed DHS spokesperson.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel and officials from the City of Romulus filed a federal lawsuit in March against DHS and ICE in an effort to derail the warehouse.
In a video Nessel released Thursday, she said the new decision shows “DHS and ICE have officially folded.”
“Romulus simply was not – and never would be – the appropriate place for a large-scale detention center. 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 statement.
“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.”
Nessel said her office would still pursue their federal lawsuit until it had an agreement, in writing, that immigration officials would not pursue a detention facility at the Romulus site.
While ICE operates out of several facilities in the state, its relatively recent purchase of a warehouse in Romulus prompted an outcry from local residents, advocates and elected leaders. Protestors regularly picketed outside the ICE facility, consistently calling for it not to house detainees.
During a news conference with Nessel in March, Romulus Mayor Robert McCraight said, “Locating a facility like this in our community would be an incredible burden on our already limited public safety resources.”
Advocacy groups from the ACLU of Michigan to the Michigan Immigrants Rights Center filed documents with the court in support of the state and city.
Many Democratic lawmakers in Michigan’s congressional delegation spoke out against the proposed detention center as well.
U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Detroit, and an outspoken ICE critic, blasted the proposed Romulus site almost immediately after it was announced and filed legislation in April aimed at derailing the project.
Last week, Michigan Democratic U.S. Reps. Haley Stevens, Hillary Scholten, Shri Thanedar, Debbie Dingell, and Kristen McDonald Rivet sent a letter to DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin that stated in part, “it is clear DHS must not move forward with the planned Romulus detention facility.”
In a statement posted on X Thursday, Dingell celebrated the Romulus reversal.
“Southeast Michigan communities came together and made their voices heard in the court of public opinion,” she said.
Michigan state Sen. Darrin Camilleri, a Trenton Democrat who represents Romulus, also thanked residents and advocates for working together to doom the project.
“We knew from the start that this ICE facility was unwanted and unwarranted in our community. We organized and coordinated with local and state partners to fight back, and we won,” he said.
ICE still operates detention facilities in Michigan. As of April, the North Lake Correctional Facility in Baldwin, Michigan, houses 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: Report: ICE to ‘offload’ Michigan warehouse, others in U.S.
Reporting by Dave Boucher, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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By Dave Boucher, Detroit Free Press | USA TODAY Network
