Despite spending nearly $200 million buying warehouses in Oakwood and Social Circle for use as ICE immigration detention/processing facilities, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reportedly has deep-sixed those plans.
The AJC says the New York Times was first to report that most of the several warehouses in the country purchased by DHS for conversion will be sold or given away. But less than half-a-year later the Trump administration has told local leaders that the properties will no longer be converted into immigrant detention centers.
“I was told three weeks ago that they’re not coming,” Social Circle City Manager Eric Taylor said Thursday.
Oakwood City Manager B.R. White said he learned of the decision from Social Circle officials who say they have confirmed it with Congressman Mike Collins but had not been able to hear it from Congressman Andrew Clyde who represents Oakwood. Just this week, Clyde told 97.5 GLORY FM’S Mike Wofford on Community Forum that he favored putting an ICE facility in the South Hall town.
“For several weeks now rumors out of D.C. are that the warehouse to detention center program is being shuttered in Georgia and elsewhere across the U.S.,” White told the AJC. “If the program is halting, I’ll believe it when I see it in writing and the property goes up for sale.”
There’s more on this story here: ICE reportedly giving up on warehouse detention plan in Georgia, elsewhere