The state of New Jersey and the Morris County town of Roxbury are suing the Trump administration over its plans to convert a warehouse in the sleepy town into a massive migrant detention center.
The 50-page complaint argues that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have violated various federal statutes, including by failing to consult local officials and conduct proper environmental reviews. They say the Trump administration plans to begin operating the facility as early as June.
“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 states. “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.”
The suit asks a federal judge to block ICE from opening and operating the center. The Department of Justice, which handles lawsuits involving the White House, did not immediately return a request for comment.
The New Jersey Monitor first reported the suit. The lawsuit, filed in federal court, names ICE, the Department of Homeland Security, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, and acting ICE Director Todd Lyons.
“New Jersey still respects the Constitution,” Gov. Mikie Sherrill said in a press conference. “We’re still accountable to the people, and the people of Roxbury still have a say before these kinds of things can be done in their backyard. The law is a law, and we’re going to go to court to stop a bad plan.”
Last month, after weeks of mixed signals, the Department of Homeland Security confirmed it would convert a Roxbury warehouse into a detention center that is expected to hold more than a thousand detained migrants. The news angered the town’s Republican officials, who said they were not consulted before the decision was made and who argue the town’s infrastructure cannot handle a detention center of that size.
“The Council and I commend the Governor and the Attorney General for their swift and decisive action to help prevent the placement of an ICE detention center within our suburban community,” Roxbury Mayor Shawn Potillo said in a release. “We remain confident that, through this process, it will be clearly demonstrated that this location is not appropriate for a facility of this nature, given the significant impacts it would have on our residents, local resources, and the surrounding environment.”
In a press conference, Sherrill said ICE spent $129 million on the warehouse, double its assessed value. And despite the hefty price tag, state and local officials say the facility is woefully unprepared to handle more than a thousand detainees and hundreds of workers. The warehouse currently holds just four toilets, Sherrill said, and the site would require extensive sewage work before it could contain more. And similar issues exist for tap water usage.
“You can’t just turn on the faucet for 2,000 more people,” the governor said.
Sherrill said state and local officials learned of the planned Roxbury center from a newspaper article. In December, the Washington Post reported that DHS planned to buy and convert warehouses around the country, including one in Roxbury, for the purpose of expanding its immigrant detention capacity. The town’s all-Republican council unanimously rebuked the proposal.
Earlier this week, The Atlantic reported that DHS officials expect a “slowdown” of the hurried attempts to convert 11 warehouses in the country into detention centers. Noem is scheduled to leave her role as DHS secretary at the end of the month.
If opened, the converted warehouse would be New Jersey’s third major ICE detention center. Delaney Hall in Newark holds more than 1,000 detainees, and the city of Newark continues to challenge the facility’s occupancy certificates in court. An ICE center in Elizabeth holds hundreds more. DHS also plans to open a detention center at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, a major military installation in Burlington and Ocean Counties, but the exact details and timeline remain fuzzy.
Attorney General Jennifer Davenport said New Jersey and Roxbury are seeking injunctive relief under four federal laws: the Administrative Procedures Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, the Intergovernmental Cooperation Act, and the Immigration and Nationality Act.
“Quite simply, the Trump administration is ignoring federal law,” Davenport said. “Turning a warehouse built with just four toilets into a facility capable of holding as many as 2,000 people will overburden local water and sewer infrastructure and strain local resources, including emergency response operations.”
Davenport said the Trump administration’s handling of the process to this point has been “wholly inadequate.”
“When they go through that process — if they ever get to that point — they will see that this facility is completely inappropriate,” Davenport said. “So I am confident that even if they get to that point where they actually may follow the process, they will find that this, this facility is inappropriate.”
This story is developing. Check back for updates.
