The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) plans to detain up to 80,000 people in converted industrial buildings. people, the daily reported. The services have not yet revealed many details about their plans. The administration is known to be looking for industrial buildings in at least eight states and is considering locations in 23 cities.
What buildings did the Trump administration buy?
How many people are being considered for detention in the new centers?
Why are local communities concerned about these plans?
What steps has the Kansas City City Council taken on this matter?
In January, two such facilities were purchased: in Maryland for USD 102 million and in Arizona – for USD 70 million. ICE expects to begin detaining people by April.
The federal authorities' plans raise logistical and humanitarian concerns among local residents and authorities. Representatives of some local communities have taken steps to block these projects.
One of the buildings that the federal government plans to turn into an immigration detention center is a warehouse in Oklahoma City that will house 1,500 people. people. There is a primary school and a church near the warehouse. Also under consideration is a former auto parts distribution center in Chester, New York. According to two people who used to work there, it got unbearably hot inside in the summer.
“I'm not sure this kind of detention is humane.”
“I'm not sure this kind of detention is humane,” said Quinton Lucas, mayor of Kansas City, Missouri. He commented on plans to transform one of the warehouses there into an ICE center that could accommodate up to 7,500 people. people. On January 15, photojournalists documented an ICE inspection of the building. On the same day, the city council passed a five-year ban on the creation of new detention centers that are not subject to the city's jurisdiction.
The Journal wrote that although the buildings need to be brought up to federal detention center standards, ICE expects the facilities will begin accepting detainees within 30 to 60 days of “final design approval and commencement of construction.” The newspaper noted that ICE in some already operating centers has problems with complying with the standards set by law.
The creation of additional ICE centers would help realize President Trump's goal of deporting millions of people from the US. Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin, in response to the newspaper's questions about ICE's plans, emphasized that the department “has new funding to expand detention centers to keep these criminals off America's streets before they are permanently removed” from the country.
