New Jersey and Roxbury Township are suing ICE and the Department of Homeland Security to stop what they call the federal government’s “illegal plan” to convert a warehouse into a mass detention facility, Gov. Mikie Sherrill announced Friday.
Sherrill and the NJ Attorney General Jennifer Davenport made the announcement at a Newark press conference.
“There is no doubt of the finality of that plan: DHS has purchased the site, has confirmed the site will be converted to an immigration detention center, and is evidently soliciting construction bids to start work,” the lawsuit reads in part. “Nor is there any doubt that the Roxbury Warehouse is not fit for detention.”
According to the filing, the Roxbury warehouse, which is located on Route 46, is not designed to hold the number of detainees and employees expected at the anticipated future detention facility — citing a lack of toilets, water, and sewage systems.
“The Roxbury Warehouse is a logistics center fit for Amazon Prime packages, not people—among other things, it currently has a total of four toilets, despite the planned influx of up to 1,500 detainees and hundreds more ICE employees,” the lawsuit reads. “Indeed, the influx of up to 1,500 detainees requiring potable water and sewage conveyance would strain beyond capacity the local water and sewage systems, threatening water availability and risking sewage overflows into land and water.”
Not only is the plan not sound when it comes to the infrastructure, the state argues, but it can have repercussions in the surrounding environment — including “an area that provides more than 70% of New Jerseyans’ drinking water and important sewage systems.” Further saying: “The construction required to further establish the site as a detention center would have major environmental impacts to boot.”
Additionally, state and local officials argue that the township’s law and public safety departments are just not equipped for Roxbury to house such a massive facility and the influx of people.
“The healthcare needs at DHS detention facilities, which have been vectors for disease outbreaks, would risk quickly overwhelming Roxbury’s two-ambulance volunteer Emergency Medical Service.”
When it comes to the planned Roxbury site, the state and township’s joint lawsuit alleges that local officials were never notified of the decision by DHS to develop the detention facility.
“Although state and local officials were not consulted by DHS in advance of its decision to develop a 1,500-person detention facility at the warehouse site, they reacted swiftly once DHS’s final decision became known: Governor Mikie Sherrill expressed her “strong opposition” to DHS by letter, and the Roxbury Township Council “unanimously” provided its opposition to a detention center,” the lawsuit reads. “DHS, however, has proceeded apace with its plans, undaunted by their significant concerns.”
The lawsuit alleges that DHS’ decision bypassed procedure and violated certain laws, including NEPA, which requires federal agencies to assess the potential local environmental harm and consider the consequences before making a final decision.
The lawsuit also alleges that DHS is in violation of the Intergovernmental Cooperation Act (ICA) which calls for the federal government to account for all national and local viewpoints when planning development programs and projects of the federal government.
“DHS accounted for none of these views here, declining to discuss its plans with state and local officials before making its final decision, and failing to affirmatively solicit their views even now—even as it gave credit to the objections of officials in other politically allied States about other proposed DHS detention sites,” the lawsuit reads. “State and local officials might not have a veto over DHS’s decisions, but this utter lack of communication and consultation flies in the face of federal law.”
New Jersey’s lawsuit also alleges that the federal government is in violation of the Immigration and Nationality Act which requires that ICE consider suitable alternatives before building a new site, and if it does end up building one, ICE is still required to “arrange for appropriate places of detention for aliens.”
Additionally, the state alleges that the decision by the federal government is violation of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) which “avoids arbitrary and capricious decision-making by ensuring that agencies consider all of the important aspects of the problem before them,” arguing that DHS didn’t consider whether the Roxbury warehouse was an appropriate site for the detention facility considering “overburdening of local infrastructure, strain on local resources, substantial environmental harms, threats to public health and safety, and unsuitability for human habitation.”
The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit Friday.
This is not the only plan to convert a warehouse into a detention facility that has sparked controversy in the tri-state area.
NBC New York reported last month, that ICE said that it purchased a warehouse in Chester, New York, to convert it into an immigration detention center, but local leaders and activists are opposing the plan.
Local politicians in the Hudson Valley area at the time also said they have no record of such a transaction and are ready to go to court if needed, while activists are not mincing words, saying they do not want ICE in the area.
The former Pep Boys distribution warehouse on Elizabeth Drive was meant to hold about 100 employees, but the federal government wants to turn it into a facility that holds 1,500 people, plus workers and visitors, Chester Village Supervisor Brandon Holdridge said, adding that Chester does not have the sewage capacity for such a high volume of people.
Additionally, Holdridge said, the warehouse sits in a flood plain on wetlands.
This potential future detention facility site is now the focus of a statewide movement to halt ICE’s project before construction begins.
More than 50 elected officials signed a bipartisan letter calling on the Department of Homeland Security to reconsider this particular detention facility plan.
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