4 Remaining ICE Warehouse Plans is 4 Too Many

ICE is selling back 7 of the 11 warehouses it bought to convert to “short-term processing” facilities. That means 4 remain. That is 4 too many.

The warehouse in Surprise, AZ will soon go through an environmental review process, similar to the one happening now for the Williamsport Detention site in Maryland. The environmental review will outline infrastructure changes to water and sewer-lines, but it will not include interior views or explain how hundreds of millions of dollars in renovation contracts are spent.

According to Project Saltbox, “The environmental assessment that Immigration and Customs Enforcement opened [in June] for its plan to convert the Williamsport, Md., warehouse into a detention facility describes interior modifications designed to accommodate up to 1,500 people and the installation of a 750,000-gallon on-site domestic water storage tank.” That 1,500 number is one thousand more than the 542 number ICE presented initially. Expect something similar at Surprise.

The amount of money being allocated to the renovation of each warehouse is staggering. In Surprise the cost is $313 million, on top of the $71 million paid for the warehouse.

After a brief pause on that $313 million renovation contract, ICE is now preparing environmental review to move forward with converting the warehouse at Surprise into a 418,000 sq ft “processing and detention facility” — a concentration camp.

In the contract’s words—

“THIS TASK ORDER IS TO PROCURE THE RENOVATION OF EXISTING, ICE-OWNED PERMANENT STRUCTURE IN SURPRISE, AZ TO SERVE AS A PROCESSING AND DETENTION FACILITY AND PROVIDE ALL NECESSARY WRAPAROUND SERVICES FOR OPERATION OF THE FACILITY.”

Here is what those words would result in, drawn and analyzed below. A $384 million concentration camp.