The mayor of Roxbury, the Morris County town home to an on-again-off-again immigrant detention center plan that is currently on again, told residents Tuesday night that he does not know why the Trump administration has decided to move forward with the controversial facility.
Mayor Shawn Potillo, speaking during the town’s regular council meeting, read a statement saying town officials are “extremely disappointed” by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s decision last week to proceed with its plans to convert a 470,000-square-foot Roxbury warehouse into a migrant jail opposed by the town’s Republican leadership. The department had said last month that it was abandoning the idea.
“No one on this dais knows why DHS reconsidered its previous position, but we are confident that this decision was not the result of any action, request, comment, or change in the position from Roxbury,” Potillo said.
Councilman Jim Rilee was blunter. Rilee, a Republican like Potillo, pinned the blame for the Trump administration’s reversal on Democratic Gov. Mikie Sherrill.
A Sherrill spokesman could not immediately be reached to comment.
The Roxbury warehouse plan has been at the center of controversy for months.
The federal government purchased the property, located off Route 46, in February for $129 million — more than double its value — as part of a national push to scoop up industrial buildings it could use for immigration detention amid escalating arrests. The town’s all-GOP leadership opposed the plan, citing the site’s closeness to residential neighborhoods, strained water and sewage capacity, an estimated $2 million hit to the Roxbury tax base, and added pressure on the township’s police and fire departments.
New Jersey and Roxbury officials sued the Trump administration in March, arguing the agency never completed required environmental reviews or consulted local officials before moving ahead. The administration in May agreed to temporarily pause its plan, then in June said it was jettisoning it altogether and selling the warehouse. That decision prompted Sherrill to issue a statement saying the lawsuit “forced the Trump administration to abandon its plans.”
On Friday, the judge overseeing the dispute said the Trump administration had reconsidered and intends to move forward with the detention center plan after all.
On Monday, Roxbury’s mayor wrote a letter to U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin asking him to see the site for himself.
“A visit to Roxbury would provide the opportunity for an open and constructive discussion based on the realities facing our Township. We believe such a conversation would clearly demonstrate why this proposed facility is incompatible with the surrounding community,” Potillo wrote in the letter, renewing an invitation he first extended three months ago.
A spokesperson for the department did not respond for comment or confirm whether Mullin had received the letter.
Members of the public who spoke at Tuesday’s council meeting at times engaged in tense exchanges with council members. Roxbury resident Olivia DeRicco pressed the council members on recent killings by ICE agents in other states.
“Next time, it’s going to be a Roxbury resident,” DeRicco said, adding, “Maybe they’re the wrong skin color for you to care about, in which case you’re not fit to be in government, and I have nothing to say to you.”
“Here we go again,” Potillo responded. “I’m telling you right now, you don’t need to bring race into anything in this room.”
