City leaders in Social Circle told Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Georgia) Monday that the city’s wastewater treatment plant is already at its limit and it will be impossible for it to handle another 10,000 residents right now. That’s the number of detainees the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) says would be housed at an ICE detention facility in the small town.
Sen. Warnock was in Social Circle for a meeting with city officials who have been at odds with DHS since they learned earlier this year that the agency was considering locating an ICE facility there. DHS has also pegged a site in Oakwood for such a center – where city officials have said they were “blindsided” to learn of those plans.
City Manager Eric Taylor told the Senator that the project is an engineering infeasibility. According to Georgia News Network, he repeated what he and others have been saying: Social Circle doesn’t have the water or sewer capacity to handle the demands of so many people.
Georgia Public Broadcasting (GPB) reports that Warnock placed the blame for Social Circle’s struggle on President Trump’s shifting priorities amid the ongoing immigration crackdown.