Sherrill will ‘assess all options’ after ICE purchases Roxbury warehouse

Gov. Mikie Sherrill on Friday rebuked the Department of Homeland Security’s plans to open an immigration detention center in Roxbury, announcing the state will “assess all options” to protect Roxbury’s infrastructure, public safety, and stability. 

In a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Sherrill scolded the DHS’s lack of communication with local and state officials as they sought to purchase a 470,000 square-foot warehouse on Route 46. The governor wrote that the state will use “every tool in its disposal” to ensure the DHS follows the country’s environmental and immigration laws.

“Despite unanimous opposition by the Roxbury Township Council, it appears that DHS intends to proceed with the project, with little or no concern for Roxbury or the surrounding communities that would be affected by this facility,” Sherrill wrote. “DHS’s failure to engage with Roxbury residents and address the concerns of Roxbury officials belies the Trump Administration’s professed commitment to transparency in government.”

The warehouse purchase has angered local Republicans, who say the site is not prepared to hold hundreds of detainees and condemned the DHS for failing to respond to their outreach. Roxbury officials learned of the proposal after a Washington Post article listed the warehouse as one of several in the country that immigration officials were looking to convert.

The governor’s letter criticized the treatment of detainees in Newark and Elizabeth facilities and echoed local officials’ concerns that the residential area couldn’t safely hold a facility with up to 1,500 detainees.

“The placement of a massive immigration detention center in Roxbury raises environmental and quality of life concerns, including increased wastewater and trash, increased strain on municipal services, and increased traffic in the vicinity of the site and the surrounding area, as well as concerns about potential conflicts with state and local building codes and zoning laws,” Sherrill wrote.

“In short, DHS’s treatment of human beings—citizen and non-citizen alike—reflects a chilling disregard for both human life and the rule of law,” she continued. “New Jersey will not be complicit in this.”

ICE has said it will conduct “community impact studies and a rigorous due diligence process” to ensure the community and local infrastructure can handle the facility.

Sherrill, an outspoken critic of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, had previously expressed concern about the Roxbury proposal but said the state was looking at its options in the case. While the letter doesn’t commit to a specific course of action, it is the latest in a series of moves against ICE, including an executive order limiting ICE’s ability to use state property. (The U.S. Department of Justice is now suing Sherrill over that order.)

“Across the country, federal immigration officers have trampled on basic liberties and engaged in unconscionable acts of violence against law-abiding Americans,” Sherrill wrote. “These acts of violence have left Americans severely injured and, in some cases, resulted in their deaths. ICE agents have repeatedly violated the constitutional rights of citizens and non-citizens alike. I have no reason to believe that DHS will treat the people of New Jersey any differently should it expand its presence in our State.”

The all-Republican Roxbury council has signaled that it plans to file suit before ICE converts the facility into a detention center.