Roxbury officials have met with the state attorney general’s office to discuss the proposed immigrant detention center and are exploring other ways, including a lawsuit, to stop the Trump administration’s plan to hold 1,500 people in what is now a warehouse.
Roxbury joins several other New Jersey towns and the state that are now looking to push back against the Trump administration’s deeply funded mass deportation effort. In addition to increased arrests by Immigration and Custom Enforcement agents, the Department of Homeland Security is buying commercial warehouses to hold people detained by its agents.
As of November, ICE was using 104 more sites for immigration detention than the start of 2025, a 91% increase, according to the American Immigration Council.
ICE now counts a warehouse in Roxbury as one of those sites, purchased by the federal government for $129.3 million, more than twice its assessed value of $62.2 million last year, according to the deed of sale filed Wednesday with the Morris County clerk.
Dalfen Industrial was a part owner of the warehouse. A spokesman for Goldman Sachs, the other partner, said in a statement Wednesday, “This property, which sat vacant for two years, was held in a real estate investment fund that we manage. We had a fiduciary obligation to investors in the fund to sell it.”
Credit: Colleen O’Dea/NJ Spotlight NewsRoxbury residents packed a township meeting Tuesday, criticizing the all-Republican council for not doing enough to prevent the sale of the 470,000-square foot building to the federal government. And many urged the local officials to follow the lead set by others across the country in taking broad legal steps to keep such facilities from their towns.
“There’s a big difference between saying we don’t want this and saying we’re going to make it harder for you,” said Adam McGovern of Parsippany. “You have to throw everything possible in their path, and that means still passing the ordinances we’ve been asking. Dalfen (Industrial, the warehouse owner) and DHS (U.S. Department of Homeland Security) slapped you in the face, and you need to slap back.”
Project NINJA and the Sussex Visibility Brigade, two groups opposing the site, have been asking the township to pass an ordinance putting a moratorium on any detention facility in the township and make detention centers a non-permitted use in zoning law. Some lawyers say these would be more symbolic actions and not likely to be effective because the supremacy clause of the U.S. Constitution gives the federal government broad power take such actions as building construction without following state and local laws.
Mayor Shawn Potillo reiterated the township’s opposition to the facility and told residents about meetings with U.S. Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ) and officials from the state attorney general’s office about further actions they can take.
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“The attorney general’s office and our township attorney Anthony Bucco, who facilitated this collaboration, will continue coordinating closely to determine the most effective way to oppose the facility at this location,” Potillo said.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Bucco, who is also a Republican state senator representing part of Morris County, said he has “done everything I can up until this point to put the township into a position to oppose this facility.” That includes contacting Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s office as well. A Sherrill spokesman has said the governor, a Democrat, is “evaluating all our options” to prevent the siting of the facility.
“As soon as everything comes together, I am sure at some point we will file a complaint,” Bucco said.
Jay Lipper, a Landing resident, said Rep. Pat Ryan (D-NY) treated the ICE plan to buy a warehouse in Chester, New York “as a five-alarm fire,” organizing 30,000 residents in opposition and grilling DHS leadership about the plan. News reports state that ICE abandoned has abandoned that location.
“We need to look at why Chester succeeded, where we are currently failing and we must demand that our leaders adopt their aggressive playbook immediately,” Lipper said.
Similarly, ICE scrapped plans to build a detention site in Merrimack, New Hampshire, following strong opposition from the public and elected officials and after Gov. Kelly Ayotte, a Republican, met with DHS Secretary Kristi Noem.
Another speaker suggested Roxbury officials follow the lead of the city manager of Social Circle, Georgia, who said he refused a request by ICE to allow water to flow into a warehouse it plans to turn into a “mega center” for housing as many as 10,000 immigrants. Some suggested the township block the driveway to the warehouse and padlock it.
Others urged the township to use what they believe to be the failure of the government to follow two federal laws, the National Environmental Policy Act and the Administrative Procedures Act, because the government did not complete a required environmental impact statement. That’s the basis of a lawsuit the state of Maryland filed this week seeking to stop the conversion of a warehouse in Williamsport for immigrant detention.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro has intimated the state will also sue to stop new facilities in two locations in the state. In a letter to Noem, he referenced the threats to clean water and functioning sewers, among other concerns and stated, “your planned actions raise substantial legal and regulatory concerns.” He said that if DHS continues to develop the two sites “my Administration will aggressively pursue every option to prevent these facilities from opening.”
“All hope is not lost,” said David Broderick of Rockaway Township. “We’re still in the fight.”
Several enforcement incidents by federal immigration authorities have drawn criticism throughout the state in recent weeks, adding to the public outrage over these actions and plans for massive detention centers like the one in Roxbury.
On Wednesday, ICE agents pursuing a van in Newark were involved in a multi-vehicle crash at Clinton Avenue and 10th Street, a residential neighborhood near the Irvington border. One of the vehicles had two 15-year-olds and a 12-year-old as passengers, according to Newark Mayor Ras Baraka. New Jersey law enforcement may chase suspects in automobiles only if they are an imminent threat, or have committed first- or second-degree crimes.
“This is our city. These are our people,” Baraka said in a statement. “And this behavior is in keeping with a rabid, lawless pattern seen nationally. Somebody could have been killed in Newark today. These agents have to adhere to local laws.”
In Lindenwold, a suburb in Camden County, a group of elementary school students on Feb. 12 fled their bus stop when they spotted ICE officers at an apartment complex. Two days earlier, in Roxbury, federal officers shot out the car tires of a suspect who, Homeland Security said, had tried to ram them. In Burlington Township, 18 miles south of Trenton, a home security camera in November recorded agents lingering outside a home while the owner insisted that her brother, who was wanted, didn’t live there.
On Tuesday, in the state Assembly, Hudson County Democrats Ravi Bhalla and Katie Brennan introduced the Fight Unlawful Conduct and Keep Individuals and Communities Empowered Act, known more commonly by its salty acronym. The bill would permit plaintiffs to file suit in Superior Court with allegations of enforcement-related civil rights violations including warrantless searches and detainments.
Benjamin J. Hulac contributed reporting for this story.
