SALT LAKE CITY — The proposed site for an immigrant detention center in Salt Lake City, focus of loud clamoring and a lawsuit, is one of several federal locations officials are now planning to get rid of, according to a report in The New York Times.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement plans to get rid of seven warehouses all around the country that were originally to be converted into immigrant detention centers as part of President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration, the newspaper said. The reporter, Hamed Aleaziz, tweeted that the Salt Lake City location is one of the seven locations.
The seven locations were acquired by federal authorities for more than $700 million, and ICE plans to either give them to other federal agencies or sell them, the Times said. In a message to KSL, the Department of Homeland Security didn’t directly say if the seven locations will be offloaded, but emphasized that it plans to use existing facilities as part of the ongoing immigration crackdown.
“From day one, DHS has remained singularly focused on removing the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens from the United States and is always evaluating the best methods to do so,” reads the statement. “These heinous criminals, once arrested, should be removed at lightning speed, not housed on American soil at the taxpayer’s expense. DHS is moving swiftly to utilize EXISTING detention space with our state and county partners.”
Spokespersons for Salt Lake City and Salt Lake County said they have received no word from DHS officials about a possible sale or property transfer. They otherwise provided no comment on the report.
ICE acquired the Salt Lake City warehouse at 6020 W. 300 South that was to be turned into a warehouse for $145.44 million last March. The vacant, cavernous structure in an industrial area west of Salt Lake City International Airport measures 833,000 square feet and was to have been retrofitted so it could house up to 10,000 detainees.
The acquisition has sparked numerous demonstrations by foes of the plan, though Gov. Spencer Cox, among others, voiced support for the proposal. Salt Lake County and Salt Lake City filed suit earlier this month in federal court to block the plans while a new nonprofit group, Uproar Utah, took shape with the aim of filing suit to halt the initiative as well. In response to the lawsuit and the threat of the Uproar Utah legal action, a DHS spokesman told KSL last week that agency initiatives were under review, echoing earlier comments.
“As with any transition, we are reviewing agency policies and proposals. As Secretary (Markwayne) Mullin said in his confirmation hearing: ‘I will work with the community leaders and make sure that we are delivering for the American people what the president set out. … We want to work with community leaders. We want to be good partners.'”
Mullin took over as head of the DHS from Kristi Noem after she was removed from the post early last March. When he took over, DHS officials said the plans she had launched to build new detention centers were under review.
Jim McConkie, a Salt Lake City lawyer involved in the Uproar Utah effort, lauded the news coming from The New York Times. He hasn’t independently received word that the detention center plans here are to be scrapped but thinks the news report is solid.
“We acknowledge with gratitude the decision not to proceed with the detention center in Utah, and we recognize the collective effort of all of those who publicly voice their opposition to this facility. For those grounded in the belief that human dignity is sacred, government support for so cruel a measure represents a profound failure of moral leadership,” he said.
He thinks DHS officials were “tilting away” from the new detention center plans given the fierce opposition many generated, even in Republican strongholds like Utah. He thinks the public opposition and specter of lawsuits factors in the apparent plans to pull back from the plans for so many new detention facilities.
The New York Times, citing unspecified documents it obtained, said immigration officials are still pursuing plans to convert four other recently acquired warehouses around the country into detention centers.
In Utah, foes of the detention center plans had criticized such a facility as inhumane given the number of people it would house. City and county officials had worried the facility would tax water and sewer systems and potentially exacerbate drying of the Great Salt Lake stemming from the water it would need.
This story may be updated.
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