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Immigration and Customs Enforcement plans to sell or transfer the warehouse it bought in Salt Lake City for a detention center, according to a New York Times reporter.
KUER asked the agency for confirmation and what it plans to do with the warehouse. It sent the same statement it gave to the Times.
“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. 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,” the statement read.
Neither Salt Lake City nor Salt Lake County has any information from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security about whether the warehouse will be sold, according to spokespeople. The city and county recently sued the federal government over the warehouse, alleging the conversion plan for a detention center would violate federal law, including the National Environmental Policy Act.
Similar lawsuits have played out across the country, which the Times cited as the “biggest challenge” to ICE’s warehouse plan. Homeland Security plans to sell or transfer seven warehouses to other agencies, after buying them for $700 million total, according to the Times.
Homeland Security bought the northwest Salt Lake City warehouse in March for $145 million. The building and land were valued at a combined $97 million.
The intended plan was to hold between 7,500 and 10,000 detainees. Mayor Erin Mendenhall criticized the plan for its “inhumane nature” and the stress on city infrastructure.
The largest ICE detention facilities currently hold around 2,000 detainees.
Brent Ward, an attorney with the anti-detention center group Uproar Utah, was thrilled at the possibility that the detention center wouldn’t happen.
“Hallelujah,” he said. “We would raise a shout to the heavens if that turned out to be true.”
Macy Lipkin is a Report for America corps member who reports for KUER in northern Utah.
