U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock on Monday visited a massive warehouse in Social Circle that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement plans to use as an immigrant detention facility starting as early as April, according to officials in the small city about 50 miles east of Atlanta.
Warnock held a news conference Monday outside of the warehouse that Department of Homeland Security officials say could hold up to 10,000 detainees — a number that has local officials concerned about whether the city’s water and sewer infrastructure can accommodate a facility of that size.
The news conference came after Warnock visited a water treatment plant, a wastewater facility and a nearby elementary school.
“Folks in Social Circle voted for this president overwhelmingly,” Warnock said of President Donald Trump. “But here’s what they didn’t vote for: They did not vote for a 10,000-person detention center that will triple the size of their town and place a massive detention center next to an elementary school.”
They also “didn’t vote for potential boil-water advisories or sewer overflows because this administration has overstrained their city’s resources,” Warnock added.
Warnock said he supports securing the nation’s borders and getting violent offenders off the streets, but that has not been the focus of the Trump administration’s mass deportation policy, he said.
“If this president focused on removing violent criminals, as he promised, Social Circle wouldn’t be suffering the consequences of this administration’s out-of-control immigration policies,” Warnock said. “I think that their lack of transparency in this whole process speaks volumes.”
Social Circle City Manager Eric Taylor told reporters that the city, which was recorded to have a population of 4,974 people in the 2020 U.S. census, is the wrong place for an “ICE megacenter.”
Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC
Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC
“This has never been about making a statement about the current administration,” Taylor said. It’s “about protecting what we have to ensure the long-term viability of our community.”
Taylor reiterated that the city does not have the water or sewer capacity to handle a massive detention center.
Beth Kinney, manager of Social Circle’s water treatment plant, said in an interview that the facility has a permit with the Georgia Environmental Protection Division to draw up to 1 million gallons per day from the Alcovy River. The facility supplies 3,500 customers, she said.
“Our peak demands call for using 80% to 90% of this permit with our current population and our industrial demands,” Taylor said. “How are we supposed to provide water for an additional 10,000 people?”
Department of Homeland Security officials told the city they planned to use the city’s system “during off-peak hours” to supply the facility with water.
“That doesn’t work,” Taylor said. “The water isn’t there, no matter what time of the day you try to pull it.”
Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC
Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC
DHS then said it would either truck the water in or dig a well, according to Taylor.
“So at a million gallons a day, assuming water tankers will hold 6,000 gallons, that’s 167 trucks a day or seven trucks every hour, going up and down this busy highway,” Taylor said outside the facility, which sits along Social Circle Parkway.
“Digging a well isn’t the solution either,” he said. “Our engineers report that it would take 30 to 60 wells to draw the amount of water necessary to support this facility. What happens to everyone else who rely on the well water to supply their households?
“It is not sustainable at all.”
Taylor added that the town is also concerned about economic impacts from the facility — loss of the facility from the property tax roll, and from where the estimated 2,500 employees would come to work there.
“This property will be removed from our tax roll because it’s government owned,” he said. “It’s expected to bring in over a half-million dollars this year, and at full build-out, this property was expected to generate over a million dollars a year. Where are we supposed to recoup that kind of money?
“Where are those (employees) coming from? Will they offer wages and bonuses to begin to cherry-pick the police officers, sheriff’s deputies and county detention workers from Social Circle and surrounding areas?”
DHS closed on purchase of the warehouse Feb. 3 for roughly $129 million.
Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC
Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC
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.
The Trump administration also has finalized its purchase of a Hall County warehouse that it plans to convert into an immigration detention center.
DHS paid just over $68 million for the Oakwood facility, according to a warranty deed filed with county authorities. Leaked ICE planning documents suggest that up to 1,500 immigrants could be held there.
Warnock has filed an amendment to a DHS funding bill that would prohibit the use of federal funds for the “acquisition, construction, renovation, or expansion” of immigrant detention facilities in Social Circle and Oakwood. That bill has not been passed by Congress.
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