U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff has written a letter to the head of the Department of Homeland Security, pressing for details about a rumored Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility planned for a warehouse in a small Atlanta suburb.
So far, leaders in the city of Social Circle, population about 5,000, have been unable to learn anything new about the idea (first reported in the Washington Post) that ICE has its eye on a million-square-foot warehouse in the city.
In his letter to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, Ossoff shared concerns raised first by local leaders about the idea that the warehouse, which is less than a mile from an elementary school, could hold up to 10,000 people slated for deportation.
“We’re not getting any transparency,” Osoff said. “The local officials in Social Circle can’t get any answers from the Department of Homeland Security. The whole thing is shrouded in secrecy — and that’s very much this Department of Homeland Security’s M.O. They evade congressional oversight. They lie in public. So it’s not surprising to me that they’re hiding the ball as they scout potential locations for new detention centers.”
Credit: GPB News
Social Circle is represented in the U.S. House by Republican Mike Collins. Collins is also running for the Senate seat currently held by Ossoff.
In a statement, a representative for Collins said while the congressman “supports ICE’s mission to detain and deport illegal immigrants that flooded over Joe Biden’s open border,” he has also requested a briefing with DHS and ICE about Social Circle in which he, too, would seek answers to residents’ questions.
Eric Taylor is the Social Circle city manager. He said local opposition to the idea is not political in a city where about three-quarters of voters cast ballots for President Trump.
“The frustration here is that they’re looking at a building that was not built for human habitation,” Taylor said. “There’s nothing more than a shell of a building. This is not something — hands down — that the city can support.”
Taylor added that if the facility were to be built out, it could triple the city’s population and exceed its ability to provide something as basic as running water.
On a recent day, a few vehicles and people could be seen at the warehouse lined by dozens of loading docks for semi trailers. Signs posted by the company PNK Group, which owns the building, listed names and numbers of representatives.
When called, those reps told GPB they were under a non-disclosure agreement amid ongoing negotiations.