Documents confirm it will be retrofitted as an ICE detention center, potentially housing 7,000 to 10,000 detainees for months at a time — numbers much higher than previously known.
Last week, the Department of Homeland Security purchased a massive warehouse in Surprise for over $70 million, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has plans for a 1,500-bed processing facility.
The acquisition of the warehouse near Waddell and Dysart roads comes as immigration enforcement efforts continue to ramp up across the country. According to records, the Rockefeller Group sold the more than 400,000-square-foot facility to DHS on Jan. 23.
In a statement, an ICE spokesperson credited funding from Trump's spending bill for the detention-space expansion efforts.
The city of Surprise says it has not been contacted by the Department of Homeland Security nor any other federal agency about the intended use of the building.
More Surprise news
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New federal court filings reveal that efforts to build an ICE detention center in Surprise are progressing slowly, and the Department of Homeland Security has indicated there is no rush to open the facility. -
The Surprise Police Department has cleared an officer after an investigation into suspected misuse of a Flock’s camera data. -
The Arizona Peace Officer Standards and Training Board, or AZ-POST, has authority to decertify police officers. Officials in two cities say officers who resigned over use of license plate readers have been referred to the agency. -
When residents of Surprise found out earlier this year that a massive immigration detention and processing center was planned to go into a 400,000-square-foot warehouse in their city, they pushed back. It’s just one example of the kind of pushback to immigration detention centers that John Washington highlights in his newest book. -
In consecutive weekdays, four metro Phoenix police departments have announced internal investigations into misuse of controversial license plate readers, also known as LPRs.
