ICE retreats from some warehouse detention plans as lawsuits mount

The Trump administration no longer plans to convert massive warehouses in Georgia and Utah into immigration detention centers, recent court filings show – the latest reversals in an ambitious effort to reshape the nation’s detention system.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said it plans to turn over the warehouses it purchased to the General Services Administration, which could transfer them to another federal agency or sell them. A similar decision came this summer in Romulus, Michigan, where ICE also abandoned a project for a detention center and moved to dispose of the warehouse.

The price of the three properties combined exceeded $300 million.

In Social Circle, Georgia, the government paid $128 million for a 1-million-square-foot warehouse it planned to turn into one of the largest detention centers in the United States, court records show. It would hold up to 10,000 immigrants and feature medical wings, recreation yards and a staff gun range. The Salt Lake City, Utah, warehouse cost $145.4 million – a premium for the area – and also was expected to hold as many as 10,000 people.

Earlier this year, ICE dropped proposals to convert two rural Pennsylvania warehouses and a three-building warehouse complex in Socorro, Texas, into…

Original source: https://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/