DHS Warehouse Purchases to Detain Immigrants Come Under Fire
NEWS & RESEARCH
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spent over $1 billion purchasing eleven warehouses across the country with the goal of converting them into mega detention centers for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Several of these facilities were designated to hold up to 10,000 people. Todd Lyons, the Acting Director of ICE, said that the plan was to house migrants at the warehouses before quickly sending them back to their countries of origin, “Like [Amazon] Prime, but with human beings.”
SOURCES: National Immigration Law Center | NBC News | PBS News | Vera Institute of Justice | Washington Post
ANALYSIS & OPINION
The deals themselves may be illegal: the administration conducted many of the purchases in secret, and in several states, officials only learned about the plans after DHS had already closed on the property—a potential violation of the Intergovernmental Cooperation Act (ICA), which requires the federal government to consult with state and local leaders before making decisions that affect their communities. DHS also failed to conduct the necessary environmental reviews required under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) before executing the plans, and it provided no justification for purchasing the warehouses, thereby potentially violating the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) as well. Human rights organizations have denounced it as inhumane, arguing that caging thousands of people in a single facility violates basic standards of dignity. But local officials are also raising practical objections, as the centers would strain the communities in which they're located. In Maryland, for instance, ICE wants to house 1,500 people in a warehouse with only four toilets. Experts warn that the sewage system couldn't handle the load, likely causing overflows into nearby rivers and contaminating drinking water with E. coli and other pathogens. Meanwhile, overcrowding raises the risk of infectious disease outbreaks that could spread beyond the facility walls.
SOURCES: EarthJustice | Los Angeles Times | Maryland Matters | The Guardian | Bolts
HOW TO FIX IT
Federal action:
Pass the End Warehouse Detention Act, which would bar DHS from using federal funding to buy, renovate, or operate any warehouse or similar building for the purposes of detaining people.
Pass the Respect for Local Communities Act, which would prohibit DHS from acquiring or operating any new detention centers without first soliciting public comment and obtaining written approval from state and local officials.
Pass the Keep ICE Out of Washington County, Maryland Act, which would ban the use of federal funding for the proposed Maryland warehouse detention center and give residents a legal pathway to challenge it in court.
Pass the Drain ICE Act, which would rescind the $75 billion funding allocated to ICE, thereby preventing the agency from purchasing new warehouses in the future.
State action:
Pass legislation like Maryland's HB 630, which prohibits the operation of an immigration detention facility in any building not originally designed and constructed for that purpose.
Issue administrative orders blocking DHS from accessing water and sewage systems at the proposed sites, as Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro and Maryland's Department of Environment have done.
Local action:
Pass a moratorium like in Kansas City, where city council members banned the city from issuing any permits or approvals that would allow a detention facility to be built or opened in the next five years.
Approve a land use ordinance, like that of Salt Lake City, to restrict how much water non-residential developments can use. The city council’s move is expected to directly impact the proposed ICE warehouse, though it was officially framed around drought concerns.
Pass resolutions opposing ICE warehouse detention centers. Although not formally binding, city councils across the country have already done so, such as in Merrillville, IN, Roxbury, NJ, Atlanta, GA, Romulus, MI, and Bucks County, PA.
Litigation:
Maryland v. Noem: Maryland sued DHS by invoking NEPA and arguing that the agency failed to assess the risk to several endangered species near the proposed site. A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction halting construction of the center while the legal issues play out, but ICE has said it will continue to explore ways to proceed at the site without violating the injunction. "This motion is really about environmental law," the judge said, "but we all know there's a bigger picture to this case, and this court is not blind to that."
State of Arizona v. Mullin et al.: Arizona brought a similar NEPA challenge, arguing that the proposed facility sits directly across the street from a site storing hazardous chemicals—making it an “inappropriate” place of detention and thereby also violating the Immigration and Nationality Act. The complaint invokes the state's public nuisance law as well, arguing that the center would threaten community health and well-being.
City of Social Circle v. ICE, et al.: The city of Social Circle, GA—a town of roughly 5,000 residents in a county where 72% of residents voted for Trump— filed a federal lawsuit arguing that the move would harm public health, overwhelm its freshwater and sewage systems, and overburden its emergency services.
New Jersey, Michigan, and Salt Lake City filed suits on similar grounds, citing NEPA, the APA, and the ICA.
Legislation: S.3927 - End Warehouse Detention Act | H.R.7652 - Respect for Local Communities Act | H.R.7470 - Keep ICE Out of Washington County, Maryland Act | H.R.7346 - Drain ICE Act of 2026
