The Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Ogden got approval to operate more than 25 years ago. But lately, the temporary detention facility site has been getting more use — and attention.
Compared to the preceding 17 months, the facility recorded nearly twice as many book-ins between Jan. 21, 2025, and Oct. 15, 2025, according to ICE detention data obtained by the Deportation Data Project. People are mostly taken in for processing and then transferred to local jails or ICE detention facilities. Others are released to continue immigration proceedings outside of detention.
“It was not meant to be used as it is being currently used, which includes people being held over two days, being held over 24 hours, and being held outside of the required hours, which are meant to be not completely strict, but only used with a few exceptions,” said Ogden resident Thor Dorosh.
He bases that claim on planning commission documents he obtained. Dorosh found that the staff report, dated June 21, 2000, said that ICE had permission to operate in a commercial zone via a conditional use permit.
Back in 2000, ICE’s predecessor, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, sought permission from the Ogden City Planning Commission to develop a regional processing office in an industrial part of town. The office now covers most Utah counties north of Salt Lake.
The office was allowed in a unanimous vote under certain conditions. Those stipulations included that “No individuals will be housed in the building beyond the normal hour of 5:00 p.m,” and that “Normal hours of operation be between 7:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., with occasional processing allowed outside these hours.”
Despite that, ICE appears to be holding people overnight. Facility data obtained by the Deportation Data Project and analyzed by KUER show that the agency held people on 43 nights from September 2023 through mid-October 2025.
Other ICE data suggest that overnight stays happen less often. Detainee-level data from the project shows 14 people left the Ogden facility on a later date than they entered during the same time frame.
As for operating hours, just under a quarter of book-ins occurred before 7:00 a.m. or after 4:00 p.m., mostly in the early morning.
Dorosh and other activists have been talking about how to limit ICE’s ability to operate in Ogden. They plan to raise the permit issue at the March 24 city council meeting.
“I view, particularly, using the city council as a means of targeting the ICE facility specifically as a way of moving energy towards something productive,” he said.
ICE also operates hold rooms in West Valley City, Orem and St. George. In a June 2025 memo, the agency expanded the detention limit for holding facilities from 12 to 72 hours.
Ogden City is not aware of any conditional use permit violations, according to spokesperson Mike McBride.
In general, if a complaint is made about an operator violating their conditional use permit, the next step is for code enforcement to confirm whether a violation is occurring. If it is, the operator has a certain amount of time to fix it, and if they don’t, the planning commission can consider revoking the permit.
If it is determined that ICE is violating its permit, the city could potentially rescind it, McBride said. But the relationship between the city and the federal government is complicated.
“Constitutionally, a local municipality cannot interfere with federal operations,” he said.
That is all tied to the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution, said Rick Su, law professor at the University of North Carolina.
“For the most part, the federal government does not have to abide by a local regulation — a local zoning regulation, a local building code regulation, and, of course, a conditional use permit falls within that land use zoning sort of component,” he said.
Even so, the federal government has traditionally cooperated with municipalities to be a good partner, he said.
A city could impose fines against the government for violations, Su said, but collecting them would be another story.
There’s a flip side to the Supremacy Clause that could be relevant when city leaders oppose the creation of an ICE detention center, as is happening in Salt Lake City. The federal government does not have to comply with local laws. It also can’t force a municipality to do something like expand its sewer system or strengthen its roads to meet the capacity of a new detention facility.
And infrastructure concerns are legitimate, Su said.
In the small city of Social Circle, Georgia, for instance, leaders cut off water to a warehouse as they wait for more information about ICE’s plans to convert it into a detention center, citing the demand on water and sewer systems.
Dorosh still hopes Ogden will revoke ICE’s permit, “even if it doesn't necessarily result in ICE, like, packing up and leaving,” he said.
“I think it is important for Ogden as an institution to directly challenge and make it clear that Ogden as a city representing its constituents don't want ICE to be operating within its city limits,” he said.
ICE did not respond to KUER’s questions about why some people are held overnight in Ogden and what facilities in the hold room are available for sleeping. Many holding facilities do not have beds, according to The Guardian.
Macy Lipkin is a Report for America corps member who reports for KUER in northern Utah.
