Oakwood is not letting its guard down despite the pause in the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) plans to locate an immigration processing facility in a vacant warehouse in the city.
“We’re still preparing for civil unrest,” City Manager B.R. White told ANF recently. “Just by seeing what has happened in Minnesota (where two people were shot and killed during anti-ICE demonstrations), we have to plan for the worst and hope for the best. There’s a sum that’s going to cost us up front to prepare for that, and it’s over $200,000 that we didn’t budget for this year.”
The DHS announced earlier this year that it was planning to locate a detention center in Social Circle, west of Atlanta, in addition to the processing facility in Oakwood as part of an expansion of such places nationwide.
That news was welcomed by both opponents and supporters in Oakwood. But the new DHS Secretary has paused any such plans while he reviews the proposals offered by his predecessor.