ICE withdraws – Immigration and Customs Enforcement has withdrawn plans for seven immigration detention centers it had purchased warehouses for, a reversal tied to skepticism from DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin and the legal and environmental pushback that followed ICE’s expa
The announcement landed like a reprieve in places where residents had spent months bracing for a new detention facility to appear in their neighborhood.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement said it was withdrawing plans for seven immigration detention centers—moves that affect warehouses the federal government bought for more than $700 million. The shift comes after Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin took over following Kristi Noem’s firing.
ICE had previously said it was purchasing more than a dozen empty warehouses to expand its capacity to detain people it said were illegally in the country. Eleven of those facilities were reported to have cost about $1 billion.
Now. ICE says it is planning to get rid of seven of those warehouses by either handing them over to other federal agencies or selling them. The warehouse plan was described as a major part of Noem’s mass deportation initiative. But Mullin privately expressed skepticism about the plan. and he said he prefers ICE adopt a more discreet approach to executing its immigration enforcement duties.
The legal and environmental backlash that followed the earlier decisions has been just as central to ICE’s change in direction. Since the plan was adopted, ICE faced numerous lawsuits over environmental concerns. Homeland Security, the department that oversees ICE, opened an investigation into the purchases.
In the months since becoming DHS secretary. Mullin has also improved communication between ICE and communities where facilities were planned. according to Jonny Melton. a city councilmember from Surprise. Arizona. Surprise is one of the cities where ICE said it was still planning to build a facility.
“The biggest change was just lines of communication,” Melton told MISRYOUM Politics News by phone. “We didn’t have lines of communication under Secretary Noem.”
Surprise is among the places still facing a legal fight. In late April. Arizona state Attorney General Kris Mayes sued DHS. Mullin and ICE. among other groups. to block the facility. In a press release. Mayes said her office would “do everything in our power” to protect the health and safety of its community.
Mayes wrote, “The federal government did not ask the people of Surprise whether they wanted this facility in their backyards.” She added, “They simply bought a warehouse, handed a $300 million contract to a private company and told the City to deal with it.”
The rollback includes at least one facility that had been publicly contested from the start: Romulus, Michigan. Like Arizona, the state’s attorney general sued to block the facility. After the announcement, the city praised the decision.
“We want to thank DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin for listening to us and taking into consideration the issues that would have made this the wrong location for a detention facility,” Romulus Mayor Robert McCraight said, according to the reporting cited in the source material.
McCraight added, “The City’s position should not be confused with opposition to responsible enforcement of our country’s laws.” He said the location was the problem, citing the facility’s proximity to residential neighborhoods, schools, and wetlands.
ICE is, and isn’t, getting rid of for now
According to documents, ICE plans to hand over or sell seven locations, including Romulus. The others named in the source material are Social Circle and Flowery Branch, Georgia; Hamburg and Tremont, Pennsylvania; Salt Lake City and Roxbury, New Jersey.
ICE still appears to be moving forward with four locations it purchased for detention purposes, according to The New York Times. Those sites include Surprise, San Antonio and Socorro, Texas, and Hagerstown, Maryland.
Work on the Maryland site is blocked by a federal judge. The source material says the specific reasoning behind ICE’s choice to maintain progress at those four particular sites remained uncertain.
Even where officials are pressing to halt the project, some local leaders say they are still waiting on clarity. Melton said conversations may continue and that a final decision on the facility in Surprise may come later.
“They just haven’t announced what they’re going to do, how they’re going to move forward,” Melton said. “I don’t think they’re going to walk away from it. They paid too much for it, but they could. They could repurpose it, or they can move forward as planned. And we don’t know either one. We just don’t know.”.
Canceling detention facilities doesn’t mean the Trump administration is ending its immigration enforcement
For residents who feared a surge of detention capacity, the canceled warehouse plan is a major change. But it doesn’t mean President Donald Trump’s administration is stepping back from immigration enforcement altogether.
The source material says that canceling detention facilities doesn’t mean the Trump administration is ending its immigration plans. Many deportees remain in detention as they await final deportation orders.
At the same time, legal and illegal immigration have fallen dramatically since Trump returned to office, raising the possibility that ICE may not need as many detention facilities as it initially thought it did.
Detainees have also been moved from the controversial Alligator Alcatraz in the Florida Everglades. DHS said the relocation was due to hurricane season starting, but the source material notes that the center opened during the height of last year’s hurricane season.
Melton said the fight over detention centers has left people in his community unsettled across political lines. He said many residents worry about having a prison-like facility close by even if they have no interest in partisan combat.
“There are plenty in my community who don’t like this, having nothing to do with politics,” Melton said. “They’re proposing to put a prison, a short-term detention facility, in city limits. This is pretty shocking to the public.”
The newest shift—seven warehouses slated for handover or sale—offers immediate relief for communities that had been preparing for construction. For others. including Surprise. the question is still whether the pause is a retreat or simply a delay while the federal government decides what to do with the facilities it already paid for.
ICE Immigration and Customs Enforcement DHS Markwayne Mullin Kristi Noem detention centers warehouses deportation Surprise Arizona Romulus Michigan lawsuits environmental concerns Alligator Alcatraz federal judge Hagerstown Maryland
So they bought all that stuff and now just… cancel? Sounds like a waste.
Wait I thought ICE was expanding, now it’s pulling back warehouses? Kinda crazy. Also $700 million?? Like who approves this stuff in the first place.
Is this because that Mullin guy got mad or whatever? I saw somewhere it was the governors fault too but idk. Either way it feels like the feds are just playing hot potato with money and people.
My cousin said they already moved stuff into those warehouses so how are they just getting rid of them now? Like what happens to the beds or whatever, do they just toss it? And the environment pushback too, sure, but they had to know before they spent $1 billion.