Atlanta suburb sues DHS over planned ICE facility that could hold 10,000 detainees

ImmigrationAtlanta suburb sues DHS over planned ICE facility that could hold 10,000 detaineesThe town of Social Circle, Georgia, alleges in a lawsuit that ICE’s new facility will overburden the town’s small infrastructure resulting in “dry taps and raw human waste spills.”Listen to this article with a free account00:0000:00DHS purchased this warehouse in in Social Circle, Ga., to use as a detention facility.Elijah Nouvelage / Bloomberg via Getty Images fileShareAdd NBC News to GoogleMay 15, 2026, 4:56 PM EDTBy Laura StricklerA suburban town outside Atlanta has sued the Department of Homeland Security and ICE for its plans to open an ICE detention warehouse for 10,000 migrants in their town of less than 5,500 residents.Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.The lawsuit filed by the town of Social Circle, Georgia, alleges ICE’s new facility will overburden the town’s small infrastructure resulting in “dry taps and raw human waste spills.”Town officials also alleged that ICE’s actions have broken state and federal laws in their effort to develop and convert a massive local warehouse into a mega detention center that cost $128 million in taxpayer money to purchase.The lawsuit says that ICE representatives told the town the facility would open by June of 2026 but no construction to convert the facility has begun. It adds that the price that ICE paid for the Georgia facility was more than five times the property’s previously assessed value.“As with any transition, we are reviewing agency policies and proposals,” a DHS spokesperson said, referring to the recent confirmation of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, who replaced Kristi Noem at the end of March. “As Secretary Mullin said in his confirmation hearing: ‘I will work with the community leaders and make sure that we are delivering for the American people what the President set out… We want to work with community leaders. We want to be good partner...