Governor Mikie Sherrill and Attorney General Jennifer Davenport announced today that New Jersey and the Township of Roxbury have requested that the U.S. District Court issue a preliminary injunction to prevent the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from converting a vacant industrial warehouse in Roxbury into a mass immigration detention facility.
Emergency relief is needed because DHS has indicated it plans to engage in construction activities in areas protected by a state-issued easement as early as late May.
If the project were to proceed, it would impose profound burdens on local infrastructure and public resources from a facility that would house up to 1,500 detainees and be staffed by 1,000 employees, in an area not zoned for large-scale human occupancy. DHS and ICE failed to comply with federal laws requiring them to consult with state and local government officials and fully assess a project’s impacts on the environment and local resources.
The motion for a preliminary injunction explains that a federal court already found a DHS decision to convert another analogous warehouse into an ICE detention facility in Maryland is likely unlawful. ICE spent $129 million to acquire the Roxbury warehouse – and should be prevented from expending even more taxpayer dollars on construction given that the lawsuit is likely to succeed on the merits.
“The Trump Administration has ignored State and local officials in pushing its ill-conceived plan forward because it knows the local impacts are indefensible, and this facility will not make the community safer,” said Governor Sherrill. “We are standing up for New Jerseyans in a bipartisan manner to ensure their drinking water, public safety, and pocketbooks are protected.”
“We need swift relief to ensure we can enforce the law and protect New Jerseyans. DHS cannot transform local neighborhoods into detention outposts without considering the impacts on local resources and consulting with the State and local governments,” said Attorney General Davenport. “The court needs to step in before the damage is done, not after a lengthy case renders it too late.”
The lawsuit filed March 20 seeks declaratory and injunctive relief under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the Intergovernmental Cooperation Act (ICA), and the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA).
DHS’s decision to purchase, convert, and operate a detention facility in this warehouse is unlawful for several reasons. As alleged in the complaint:
· The site is currently a vacant warehouse on Route 46 that consists largely of a single large room with concrete floors and only four toilets.
· The property lacks adequate water or sewage access to accommodate up to 1,500 detainees and 1,000 ICE staff.
· Converting the warehouse into a detention center would multiply the water demands and wastewater output by more than 15 times, posing a serious risk of sewage overflows into nearby land, streets, and waterways – including Lake Musconetcong, which is 1,000 feet away and downhill from the warehouse, and Lake Hopatcong, the largest freshwater lake in New Jersey.
· An exponential increase in water demand poses a substantial risk of reducing water pressure and reliability for residents, impairing flows needed for fighting fires, depleting groundwater, and diminishing nearby wells.
The warehouse is located near the Route 46 interchange with Interstate 80, an already dangerous section of road that has been the site of dozens of crashes, including three with fatalities, since 2019. It is expected that about 1,000 staff will work at the warehouse following its conversion, adding hundreds of new vehicles to nearby roads during rush hour.
