COLUMBUS - Campaigning this weekend in Burlington County, home to Fort Dix, U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-11) in response to a question from a resident expressed her on-the-ground opposition to the Trump Administration's plan to use the Army base as a detention facility.

Last week, the Trump administration announced that it will use the U.S. Army installation - part of Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in South New Jersey - to hold potentially thousands of people while ICE attempts to deport them.

"I am really fighting hard against that," said Sherrill, the Democratic nominee for governor, while interacting with residents at the Burlington County Fair. "I sit on the Armed Services Committee and I am a veteran, and we have seen that as they have done this at other bases in other states they are taking money away from the support Congress designated for service members for Trump's project, which is unacceptable, not just to me, but the entire New Jersey delegation on the Democratic side."

The New Jersey chapter of the ACLU agrees with Sherrill:

"This is another disturbing expansion of the Trump administration's use of the military domestically and its rapid build out of immigration detention, coming on the heels of the newly-passed budget reconciliation bill's $170 billion to turbocharge deportations and detention. While the military base will initially hold 1,000 immigrants, the Department of Defense has reportedly approved an expansion to detain up to 3,000 immigrants. The Department of Defense has reportedly also agreed to allow the Department of Homeland Security to use its bases to detain 400 immigrants at the infamous Guantanamo Bay military prison in Cuba, at least 1,000 at Camp Atterbury in Indiana, and 5,000 at Fort Bliss in Texas.

"Media reports also indicate that the Trump administration will deploy 2,000 National Guard troops to ICE detention centers nationwide – including at military bases."

More context, from the New Jersey Monitor:

"New Jersey House Democrats oppose the move to house detained immigrants at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, with most of them signing a statement Friday calling the plan an “inappropriate use of our national defense system and military resources.”

“Using our country’s military to detain and hold undocumented immigrants jeopardizes military preparedness and paves the way for ICE immigration raids in every New Jersey community. We have the greatest military in the world and using it as a domestic political tool is unacceptable and shameful,” the statement reads.

The news surfaced this week via a letter U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth sent to Rep. Herb Conaway (D-03), whose district includes the base, commonly known as Fort Dix. The letter was first reported by NJ Spotlight News.