US towns protest Trump’s plan to turn warehouse into ICE jail

Residents in a leafy, conservative New Jersey suburb have erupted in protest against plans to convert a vast warehouse into an immigration detention centre as part of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign.

A surge in immigration arrests is driving demand for more holding facilities, and officials are eyeing vacant logistics hubs across the United States despite concerns from rights groups that they are not fit for the purpose.

“This is a warehouse. It’s designed to house packages and goods, not human beings,” William Angus, 55, who is leading the protests against the plans for the town of Roxbury, told AFP in front of a large white building.

Covering almost 500,000 square feet (46,500 square meters), the unit has several loading docks designed for trucks and sits next to another functioning warehouse.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, has already bought or rented at least eight such facilities, from Texas to Pennsylvania, that it will convert into detention hubs.

But the agency conducting the US immigration crackdown has backed away from some locations after public opposition.

– ‘Not a jail town’ –

Hoping to deter ICE from coming to their town, around 500 people in Roxbury — a low-crime suburb which voted for Trump in 2024 — lined a sidewalk this week, waving signs that read, “Not a jail town” and “ICE out our neighbourhood.”

Some referenced the killings by federal agents of two US protesters in the northern city of Minneapolis in January, which stirred outrage nationwide.

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Opinion polls suggest that ICE’s aggressive tactics mean it is losing support among Americans.

“I don’t want any inhumane concentration camps in my country, let alone right here in New Jersey,” said Heidi, a 50-year-old nurse who declined to share her last name due to privacy concerns.

There are signs the protests are gaining momentum.

The town council, made up of elected officials from Trump’s Republican party, has passed a largely symbolic resolution opposing a possible ICE facility in Roxbury, which lies about 40 miles west of New York city.

Many drivers honked or waved to show support for the rally. But not everyone was in favor. A handful heckled “Go home” and “Trump, baby” as they passed.

And at a Walmart supermarket near the protest, some voiced their support for the proposed ICE facility.

“I think there’s an opportunity to clean up this area in New Jersey. There’s a lot of people that probably are illegally here,” retired factory manager Gordon Taylor, 71, said.

– ‘Treating people like parcels’ –

Since Trump began his second presidential term in January 2025, the number of US immigration detention facilities almost doubled from 114 to 218 by late November, according to the American Immigration Council, which documented at least 30 detainee deaths in ICE jails last year.

Nayna Gupta, policy director at the US-based nonprofit that has raised overcrowding and health issues in existing ICE facilities, said commercial warehouses cannot safely house detainees.

“This is the Trump administration treating people like parcels,” she told AFP.

ICE has said it will ensure the warehouses are appropriately converted to accommodate people.

Still, Gupta said that protests have signalled to Trump officials that “even if they have billions of dollars to open these warehouses, they don’t have the broad base of public support they pretend to have for this agenda.”

Both elected Democrats and Republicans have resisted ICE facilities coming to their areas — even if Republicans focus less on rights concerns and more on the impact on infrastructure and resources.

Local opposition, however, has limited ability to block ICE from acquiring privately owned warehouses beyond pressuring the agency and property owners to pull back.

Roxbury residents are worried not just about having a jail in their neighbourhood but also about immigration agents rounding up people there.

Pablo Arceo, who works at a Mexican restaurant a short drive from the vacant warehouse, is anxious about ICE officials intimidating his colleagues.

“It’s a concern. We’ve had cops pull up for minor things, and everybody freaks out because today, even if you have your papers — which they all do — anything can happen,” the 20-year-old said.

AFP