Local officials blindsided by reported plan to detain migrants in warehouse

ICE currently has enough detention beds to detain as many as 70,000 immigrants at a time. According to The Post, the agency’s warehouse plan could create room for as many as 80,000 additional detainees.

In addition to Social Circle, ICE is considering large-scale warehouses for immigrant detention in cities in Virginia, Texas, Louisiana, Arizona and Missouri. Each would hold 5,000 to 10,000 people, The Post reported.

Sixteen smaller warehouses, including one in Jefferson, Georgia, would hold up to 1,500 people each.

The project’s draft solicitation reviewed by The Post is not final and subject to change. But it is raising alarm among immigrant advocates worried about the conditions to which detainees would be exposed in industrial buildings, and flummoxing local officials caught unaware by ICE’s plans.

Officials with the Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment.

A majority of Social Circle is in Walton County, with a portion of the city extending into Newton County.

“The Walton County Government has had no correspondence or communication with the federal government, the Department of Homeland Security, or any private contractors regarding the establishment of a detention center,” the Walton County manager’s office told the AJC in a statement. “There are currently no applications or inquiries on file with the county for a project of this nature.”

According to the Development Authority of Walton County, the only building in Social Circle that matches the kind of facility sought by ICE is a currently-unused warehouse at 1365 East Hightower Trail, The Covington News reported.

Credit: Curtis Compton/ Curtis.Compton@ajc.com

Credit: Curtis Compton/ Curtis.Compton@ajc.com

County tax records show the facility, valued at nearly $26.5 million, spans more than 183 acres. It was built in 2024 and is described as a “mega distribution” plant.

Taylor said he is concerned by the warehouse’s proximity to a local elementary school, just 4,000 feet away. He also noted that the city does not have the water and sewer infrastructure to support a project that could bring Social Circle’s residential population to triple its current level.

“Our water permit that we have barely covers our current 5,000 population,” Taylor said. Welcoming a large scale detention facility “is an engineering unfeasibility, in our opinion”

He added that, were the federal government to purchase the East Hightower Trail warehouse, it would take the building off city tax rolls, removing around $300,000 a year from Social Circle’s tax base.

“There’s just a lot of unknowns that we just don’t know anything about, because nobody will tell us what’s going on,” he said.

County tax records identify the current owner of the warehouse as PNK S1 LLC. A Georgia Corporations Division entry for the business lists a New York principal office address, which matches that of PNK Group, a developer and general contractor that builds and leases industrial facilities.

“PNK Group’s facilities are incredibly versatile, suitable for various purposes, including production, warehousing, and distribution centers,” the company’s website says.

As recently as November, PNK Group listed the Social Circle building as being “available now.” It has since been removed from the company’s roster of available properties.

PNK Group did not respond to a request for comment.

Taylor said local officials have contacted the company for information on a possible deal with federal authorities, but they were told that the plans for the warehouse are the subject of a non-disclosure agreement.

According to Taylor, he has also reached out to state and federal officials, but has yet to learn anything beyond what has been reported in The Post.

“That’s why all this is frustrating, because all of this is out there in the world, and everybody’s all worked up about it, including us, especially the city of Social Circle, but yet we don’t have anything to respond to,” he said. “How are we to respond to something that we know nothing about?”

The office of U.S. Rep. Mike Collins, R-Jackson, who represents the area, said in a statement that the congressman supports ICE’s mission and will be following the proposal closely.

Gigi Pedraza, executive director of the Atlanta-based Latino Community Fund, said ICE’s failure to loop in city officials to its plans is emblematic of a broader “disregard for due process.”

“Plans to hold people in an industrial complex creates serious legal and civil rights issues,” Pedraza said. “Abuses in formal detention centers are already common and getting worse. Using locations like the one in Social Circle (would increase) safety concerns.”