ROXBURY - There have been reports for weeks that the feds have been illegally using a warehouse off Route 46 to detain undocumented immigrants.

And on Tuesday night, township officials admitted as much - sort of.

On Sept. 4 and 8, detainees had been processed in the parking lot of the building, according to a statement read at a council meeting by Mark Crowley, the deputy mayor.

The statement said detainees were not brought inside.

However, the statement also said that the Department of Homeland Security had used the building for training purposes.

Any such activities likely violated a court order that came about after both the state and the all-Republican council sued to stop conversion of the warehouse into an ICE detention center.

So now, Crowley said, the township wants access to the warehouse for an inspection. The courts have to allow that.

Crowley's statement did little to please a few dozen ICE protesters who have become a steady presence at council meetings.

Some speakers insisted they had seen ICE agents move detainees inside the building.

The general view was that the feds are lying and cannot be trusted.

In theory, the council and the protesters are on the same side. Both oppose a detention center in Roxbury.

That's in theory.

In practice, many speakers at these meetings seem unconvinced that the council is fully committed to this fight.

As speakers detail alleged atrocities at Delaney Hall and parents being yanked away from their kids, council members are at times accused of indifference to the plight of immigrants.

Nothing happens in a vacuum, and the midterm election is three weeks away.

That will have no effect on the council. There is no election in Roxbury this year.

But it can have a major impact on the nation and by extension, Roxbury.

One speaker said the council may have to get accustomed to working with Democrat Rebecca Bennett if she beats Tom Kean Jr. in CD-7.

In attendance was Veronica Fernandez, a Long Valley resident who is also an independent candidate for the U.S. Senate.

"Midterms are coming," she said. She made it sound like a warning.