Revolt in small Georgia town appears to ward off ICE detention center

The small town of Social Circle in rural Georgia has announced that the Department of Homeland Security has cancelled plans to turn a warehouse into what would have been one of the largest immigration detention centers in the country.The cancellation appears to be one of seven around the country, according to reporting elsewhere, and part of a reversal under new homeland security director Markwayne Mullin in the Trump administration’s plans to buy up warehouses and boost detention capacity – after spending $1bn on the effort in recent months.The federal government purchased the Social Circle warehouse for $128m in early February – nearly five times its assessed value of $29m last year, city manager Eric Taylor told the Guardian shortly after the sale went through.With plans for detaining up to 10,000 people, the detention center would have tripled the local population, putting strains on drinking water and sewage, as well as on local police and ambulances.Despite being located in a county where nearly 75% of people voted for Trump, residents of the rural town with 19th-century buildings downtown and surrounding horse and cattle farms began mobilizing against the plan.The Guardian was the first to report that Taylor shut off the federal government’s access to water at the warehouse in February as the controversy took off.Taylor also reached out to the US representative Mike Collins and the US senators Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, who got involved in the issue. Organizations like Indivisible Boldly Blue and Indivisible GA 10 also pushed back against the detention center plans.As months went by, Taylor became accustomed to fielding calls from national and international reporters, including from France and Japan. “I never thought I’d have to deal with anything of this magnitude,” he said. “It’s amazing the focus on this small town, just minding its own business.”Throughout, local leaders, including Taylor, publicly decried the federal government’s lack of response to their concerns about the plan.Then, last month, Social Circle became the first small town to sue the federal government over detention center plans, after several states had done so. The lawsuit employed a novel strategy, invoking areas of law that differed from the others, as experts told the Guardian.In late May, Taylor “began hearing rumors” about homeland security pulling out of Social Circle. Sources at homeland security and Collins then confirmed the news. Nonetheless, Taylor said, “We decided to wait until announcing and wanted to see if we could get it in writing.”But just as with Taylor’s previous attempts at engaging the federal agency, no answer arrived.“At this point, we’re not sure anyone’s going to put it in writing,” he said. “From the very beginning, this is how this whole thing has evolved … we’ve had to piecemeal what the situation is.”On Friday morning, he said: “We hope everything is what it seems to be,” referring to the cancellation of the warehouse plans.Homeland security did not reply to a query from the Guardian.It remains unclear whether the agency will offer Social Circle’s warehouse to another federal agency or attempt to sell it to a private buyer. Taylor would prefer the latter, since the federal government doesn’t pay any taxes on the property. Former warehouse owners PNK Group paid about $300,000 in taxes last year.“If they want to consider giving it to us, we’ll take it off their hands,” he said.But if the Trump administration decides to retain ownership, the city manager added, “Hopefully they’ve learned their lesson here and communicate with us from the very beginning.”