The Trump administration has agreed to delay its plan to convert a Roxbury warehouse into an immigration detention center, a partial win for state and local officials who are seeking to block the proposal entirely.
Under a joint stipulation that came soon before the matter was expected to go before a judge on Tuesday, the federal government agreed to conduct an environmental assessment under the National Environmental Policy Act, which can take months to complete. The initial plan was to open the 470,000-square-foot detention center as soon as next month.
In a joint statement, Gov. Mikie Sherrill, Attorney General Jen Davenport, and Roxbury Mayor Shawn Potillo said they have been demanding that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security “back off its rushed construction” of the new jail since the state and Roxbury sued the federal government in March to halt the plan.
“We’ve been clear from the beginning that DHS’s proposed ICE detention facility in Roxbury will harm the community and won’t do anything to make us safer. If DHS conducts a proper analysis, it will discover that this industrial warehouse is no place for a detention center. If DHS continues to plow ahead after conducting its further analysis, we will return to Court to seek relief immediately,” they said.
The agreement says that within seven days of the final environmental assessment, both sides must confer before next steps.
New Jersey and Roxbury were due to argue in court Tuesday for a preliminary injunction halting construction on the warehouse until a judge decides on the underlying matter. Advocates gathered outside the Newark federal courthouse celebrated the order as a win for the Morris County town.
David Broderick, a retired attorney who works with activist group No Ice North Jersey Alliance, said the new agreement was the “best we could have hoped for.”
“Our real hope is that they just decide it doesn’t make sense to continue down this path and just walk away. Either use it as a garage or sell it,” he said.
The stipulation allows the government to do some work and maintenance on the facility, like installing a fence and CCTV cameras, monitoring the fire alarms and sprinkler systems, and limited custodial services and grounds maintenance.
“If they go one inch beyond what they’re allowed to do, there’s going to be hell to pay,” said Broderick.
The federal government purchased the warehouse off Route 46 in February for nearly $130 million. Federal officials said they planned to use it as an immigrant processing center where up to 1,500 people could be held. It would be the third detention facility for migrants in New Jersey, including privately owned jails in Elizabeth and Newark.
The New Jersey and Roxbury lawsuit alleges that the warehouse lacks adequate water, sewer, and bathroom access for detainees and staffers, and that an exponential increase in water demand could pose a risk to residents as well as sewage overflows into nearby land, streets, and waterways.
The GOP-led Roxbury Township Council has said the Morris County town, which has a population of 22,000, just 42 police officers, and a volunteer fire department, is not equipped to house a detention center the size of the one envisioned by the Trump administration.
The Department of Homeland Security has acquired warehouses across the country intending to retrofit them into immigration detention centers to house thousands of detainees as part of President Trump’s mass detention and deportation effort.
A spokesperson for the department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In Maryland, a federal judge last month granted a preliminary injunction to halt the conversion of a warehouse in Williamsport, siding with state officials who claimed it would have led to environmental violations.
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