Defund ICE and Oppose Warehouse Detention Expansion

I am writing to urge you to oppose funding for ICE's plan to convert warehouses into mass detention facilities and to support defunding the agency's detention operations. The Department of Homeland Security has been quietly purchasing warehouses in 23 cities to expand immigration detention capacity, planning to imprison 80,000 immigrants in these facilities on top of the nearly 70,000 people already detained across more than 230 ICE facilities. This expansion is both inhumane and harmful to communities. ICE acting Director Todd M. Lyons described the strategy at a Border Security Expo as treating mass deportations "like a business … like Prime, but with human beings." Pastor Seth Kaper-Dale aptly calls these warehouses "human sortation centers" representing the "Amazonification of detention centers." Stacy Suh of Detention Watch Network stated that "all immigration detention is inherently inhumane and rife with abuse, and yet the warehouse model currently being pursued is particularly horrifying." Communities across the political spectrum are rejecting these facilities. In Kansas City, Missouri, Platform Ventures withdrew from a deal to convert a nearly 1 million-square-foot warehouse into a detention center for 7,500 immigrants after sustained pressure from the Missouri Workers Center, Stand Up KC, Decarcerate KC, and Advocates for Immigrant Rights and Reconciliation. In Roxbury, New Jersey, a Republican township council voted unanimously on January 13 to oppose a 470,000-square-foot warehouse, though DHS purchased it anyway on February 20. These facilities burden local infrastructure, strain water and sewer systems, and deprive municipalities of tax revenue for schools and services since federal agencies pay no taxes. The majority of those arrested by ICE have no criminal backgrounds, contradicting claims of targeting dangerous individuals. In New Jersey alone, over 100,000 people are on non-detained dockets who must report to ICE offices regularly. I urge you to vote against any appropriations that fund ICE detention expansion and to support legislation that defunds the agency's detention operations entirely. Mass detention helps no one and harms our communities.