• A proposed Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in Romulus and ICE office space in Southfield have sparked protests 
• Proposed facilities are part of a national wave of federal agencies buying or leasing warehouses for immigration enforcement
• Local and state officials say they’re exploring all the legal options they have to prevent ICE from setting up shop near Detroit

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ROMULUS — Local, state and federal officials from Michigan say they are exploring “all options” to try to block the opening of a new immigrant detention center in metro Detroit, but new federal records suggest the Trump administration is preparing to move forward anyway. 

A federal regulatory assessment notice first identified this week on a government website shows the Department of Homeland Security plans to retrofit a 473,158‑square‑foot warehouse and establish a “secure operational area” on about 19 acres in Romulus.

The plans call for 3,800 linear feet of new perimeter security fencing and wastewater upgrades, among other things, but the records indicate the project could require state and local coordination or permits that some officials have already identified as a potential way to block the project. 

On Friday, Democratic Attorney General Dana Nessel sent a letter to Immigration and Customs Enforcement demanding they halt the project, arguing that the proposed activity ignores the state’s sovereign interests as well as federal and state law.

“Our system of government and the law demand transparency and partnership with state and local governments,” Nessel wrote in the letter. “But ICE seems determined not just to ignore the need for such cooperation, but to frustrate it.”

Related:

• Nessel asks residents to report ‘concerning’ ICE actions
• ICE in Michigan: More arrests, detainees and protests
• ICE denies targeting schools as lawmakers eye restrictions

Local officials say they have been kept in the dark about the project, but in a heated city council meeting on Monday, Mayor Robert McCraight said Romulus will not issue a permit or certificate of occupancy for the facility while he remains in office. 

The city, he subsequently told residents, “cannot sustain the impact to our residents, our public safety departments nor the economic impact to our community and the region should DHS open such a facility in an already overburdened and underserved city.”

Permitting is just one potential avenue officials are exploring as they try to fight to block the facility. Michigan Democrats in the US House and Senate are urging the Trump administration to back off the plans, and Nessel has not ruled out additional legal action. 

“Our No. 1 goal is to find any avenue to slow this down or stop it,” state Sen. Darrin Camilleri, D-Trenton, told Bridge, adding that Romulus city ordinances and zoning don’t currently allow that type of use for the building in question. 

“I’m working hand in hand with my mayor and my city council to do everything that we can to oppose this project.” 

Their options could be limited, however. 

A spokesperson for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement told Bridge Michigan the agency already purchased the Romulus facility and promised a community impact study and due diligence process “to make sure there is no hardship on local utilities or infrastructure.” 

The spokesperson estimated the Romulus facility, located near the Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport, and its construction would bring 1,458 jobs to the area and more than $33 million in tax revenue. 

 “These economic benefits don’t even take into account that removing criminals from the streets makes communities safer for business owners and customers,” the spokesperson said in an email to Bridge Michigan. 

A national push

A similar debate is playing out in Southfield, where the city recently confirmed that the federal government signed a lease with One Towne Square for ICE office space. Officials there are attempting to ramp up pressure on the property owner to sever ties with ICE. 

ICE already operates the Midwest’s largest immigrant detention center in Michigan. The Baldwin facility, which as of January housed a daily average of 1,391 detainees, has been owned by a private prison company since 2009, so there was little state or local officials could do to stop it. 

But as President Donald Trump continues to ramp up controversial mass deportation efforts, ICE has reportedly acquired warehouses to potentially convert into detention centers in at least 20 communities across the country.

The process has been marked by secrecy, frustrating local officials who are accustomed to the federal government coordinating and consulting with communities when choosing locations for prisons or detention centers. 

Like in Romulus, officials in Texas, Pennsylvania and other states told the Associated Press that they were in the dark about the federal government’s plans for their communities. 

A separate review of federal records by the news outlet WIRED indicates at least 150 purchases or leases for ICE agents and attorneys are planned nationwide, many of which have eschewed typical government procurement procedures due to “national security concerns.” 

Details of the Michigan plans remain murky — Camilleri, the state senator, said he feels like he’s “acting like a detective” as he digs for more information — but the federal floodplain review first reported by Axios Detroit shows the agency is planning to reopen 7525 Cogswell St. 

The document confirms the Romulus facility would operate as a detention processing center. The agency’s proposal involves installing new security fencing, security checkpoints, cameras, lighting and outdoor recreation courts to the existing warehouse facility. 

Nessel — the Democratic attorney general who earlier this month launched a public form to encourage residents to report “concerning behavior” by ICE — called the secrecy surrounding the property acquisition “troubling” in a statement to Bridge, leaving open the possibility of her office getting involved further. 

In her Friday letter to ICE, Nessel said the warehouse isn’t currently designed to house, feed, bathe, protect or care for detainees. She argued the agency’s floodplain notice lacked the details necessary to assess whether the project complies with federal environmental laws, noting ICE had not applied for or started discussions for state permitting, either. 

Nessel also cited its proximity to local schools — Romulus Middle School and Wick Elementary School are each less than two miles from the facility — and what she called a protected wetland. “What’s more, ICE purchased the warehouse before any attempt to communicate with the State of Michigan, its agencies, or any local governing body about it,” she wrote. 

Some Michigan Republicans have argued locals should step aside and allow the plan to proceed, noting it could bring new jobs.

“Folks in Romulus need jobs and their kids need education, but the city council’s top priority is to appease some washed out white progressives and pretend they can stop the ICE facility,” Mike Cox, the former attorney general and current candidate for governor, posted on social media.  

Protests and a punch

Hundreds of people turned out for an anti-ICE rally outside Romulus City Hall Monday, where an altercation between anti-ICE protesters and counterprotesters ended in a punch being thrown and a demonstrator landing on the ground before he was escorted from the scene by police.

Several attendees who spoke with Bridge said they hoped community activism and local government resistance would ultimately mean something.

“The fact that it’s even on the docket or being considered and not immediately dismissed…it’s disheartening,” Lindsay Duke, an Ann Arbor resident who attended the rally, said of the proposed facility. “There has to be accountability for it. We have checks and balances in place.”

State Rep. Jaime Greene, R-Richmond, said she understands that people are upset with how ICE has handled certain situations but argued the country needs the border security that the federal agency provides. 

“The ICE agents are doing their job — we do need to let them do their job, and those who don’t do their job properly need to be held accountable,” she said. “If we have a crime problem with illegals committing crime, obviously ICE needs a bigger presence.”

Following the protest, city council members unanimously approved a resolution opposing the facility, arguing the presence of a detention center might “depress property values, deter business investment and impose long-term negative impacts inconsistent with the city’s development goals and land-use planning strategies.” 

On the same night, Southfield officials passed a resolution reiterating its commitment to a “welcoming and inclusive community” where police don’t participate in immigration status investigations. 

“We cannot ignore federal law, but we can and will determine how the City of Southfield engages within that framework, guided by our responsibility to protect the safety and trust of our community,” the city said in a statement announcing the resolution.

The Southfield property owner, REDICO, has said the lease was struck with the US General Services Administration and “explicitly prohibits any law enforcement, detention or similar activities to take place on the premises.”

Sen. Jeremy Moss, a Southfield Democrat, said the federal government and its business partners shouldn’t discount the power of citizen protests, which he predicted would continue for as long as the partnership does.

“Our community is going to come out and protest probably every week,” he said. “The building owner has to be a good neighbor, too, and if not, they’re going to find that people in our community are going to hold them to account.”

Moss and other Democratic lawmakers are also pursuing limits on ICE at the state level, including a ban on ICE agents wearing masks, immigration enforcement raids in sensitive areas like schools and churches and protecting private data from being misused by federal agencies. 

Those proposals will likely have a tough time getting through the Republican-led House, where Speaker Matt Hall, R-Richland Township, has expressed support for Trump and his crackdown on illegal immigration. 

What’s happening in other states

It’s not just Democratic-led states or communities questioning ICE warehouse plans. 

In New Hampshire, Republican Gov. Kelly Ayotte announced this week that, after what she called “productive discussions” with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, the Trump administration is calling off plans for an ICE detention facility in the town of Merrimack. 

Like Romulus, some other local governments have also explored permitting denials as a potential mechanism to block ICE expansion. 

In Greensboro, North Carolina, for instance, city staff recently said a planned ICE facility would require rezoning, which could take months and require approval by city council, where at least one member has said she would not support any change. 

Still, the federal government may be able to use its legal authority to preempt state and local land-use and occupancy rules in some cases, according to experts at the Urban Institute, a nonprofit think tank.

“Warehouses aren’t generally designed for continuous occupancy by people, and their use in this manner could both strain local infrastructure and result in unsafe, unhealthy conditions for detainees,” the researchers wrote in a recent report. 

“Though the federal government may be able to supersede some local zoning laws, some local governments are exploring other avenues through which they can influence ICE’s impact on people and their communities.”

US Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Detroit, said in a recent press call that Michigan needs to use every tool at its disposal to keep the ICE deals from happening.

“We will not accept a new warehouse prison in Romulus to cage hundreds of our neighbors,” she said.

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