Overview
- The City of Social Circle filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday seeking to halt conversion of a warehouse at 1365 East Hightower Trail into a 10,000‑bed detention center and to void the purchase.
- The suit alleges DHS and ICE violated the National Environmental Policy Act and the Administrative Procedure Act by skipping required reviews, and it warns the site would need over one million extra gallons of water per day that the system cannot support.
- DHS has not offered a detailed response, issuing an unsigned note that new Secretary Markwayne Mullin is reviewing proposals, while the city says ICE once targeted a June 2026 opening even though no conversion has started.
- Court filings say ICE paid about $128 million for the warehouse, and NBC reports the DHS inspector general has opened an audit into whether new detention space was justified and purchased cost‑effectively.
- The warehouse is one piece of an ICE plan to create eight regional mega centers and other sites to add 92,600 detention beds at an estimated cost of $38.3 billion.