Steve Miller‘s outlandish-detention quotas for undocumented immigrants—to say nothing of Project 2025’s “strategy” for mass incarceration—was always going to lead us here.
Donald Trump’s DHS has “identified a network of industrial properties” in dozens of locations around the country (in a meeting that traces back to early December 2025, specific date unknown) for conversion into detention centers. And according to Washington Post reporters Jonathan O’Connell and Douglas MacMillan, many of the sites represent risks to surrounding communities—or to detainees themselves.
One industrial building the federal government plans to overhaul into an immigrant detention center, in Roxbury, New Jersey, draws groundwater from a small town that uses nearly all of its daily limit. Another proposed detention site is a warehouse in Oklahoma City that would holdup to 1,500 people a little more than a mile from an elementary school and a Pentecostal church. A third location, previously an auto parts distribution center in Chester, New York, became so unbearably hot during summer months that two people who used to work there said it was akin to being stuck inside an aluminum shed.
Those are a few of the logistical and humanitarian concerns raised by residents and local officials in some of the 23 towns where U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement plans to convert industrial buildings into detention centers that, combined, would hold up to 80,000 people. ICE has offered few details about its plan since The Washington Post first reported on it last month.
Jonathan O’Connell and Douglas MacMillan for Washington Post
Open for business during the ‘Shutdown’
To fully understand the regime’s actions and intent with the property blitz, it’s important to rewind to last October 2025 during the last Trump Shutdown: while “critical government work was being put on hold” and most government was at a standstill, GSA was abuzz with activity. As Leah Feiger reported for Wired.com, the agency was acting on an internal memorandum (pertaining to yet another Executive Order) to “meet critical immigration enforcement deadlines”—which included offices for ICE personnel as well as incarceration space.
On October 9, the same day that Trump announced in a cabinet meeting that the government would be making ‘permanent’ cuts from ‘Democrat programs’ during the shutdown, GSA received a list from OPLA with requests for office locations, including expansions and new leases, in 41 cities around the country.
In a memorandum dated October 29, 2025, a representative from Homeland Security Investigations—one of the two major departments within ICE, along with ERO, and tasked with a wide range of investigative work in cases ranging from human trafficking to art theft—asked GSA’s office of general counsel to engage in nationwide lease acquisition on behalf of DHS ‘using the unusual and compelling urgency justification,’ in accordance with Trump’s executive immigration order.
Leah Feiger reported for Wired.com
Although this sweeping plan links back to the Project 2025 manifesto, Donald Trump’s operatives are not following Heritage Foundation‘s recommendations to the letter: Project 2025 “advocates” for increased expansion of ICE’s detention capacity to more than 100,000 beds, but Heritage also recommends Congress approve funding to facilitate detention—the Constitutionally required action that this administration is conspicuously, almost proudly it seems, not doing.
Georgia property with Russian connections
As with any activity connected to Project 2025 or Trump (particularly anything real estate-related), there’s always at least a whiff of corruption or graft. But in the case of a warehouse in Social Circle, Georgia—recently purchased, according to reports, by ICE/DHS for conversion—the transaction has everything: inflated purchase prices, lots of secrecy, and residents in multiple communities in near-unanimous opposition.
From Stephen Milligan at Walton Tribune:
According to a deed obtained by reporters, the U.S. government paid $128,555,500 to PNK S1, LLC to purchase a 235-acre lot at 1365 East Hightower Trail. The lot currently contains a warehouse that is expected to be used as a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility. The facility could house 5,000-10,000 detainees, which could effectively triple the population of Social Circle.
A few months after Regime 2 first kicked off, Acting-ICE director Todd Lyons said he wanted deportations to “work like Amazon Prime.” With so many warehouses either in DHS’ purchase pipeline or already acquired, Lyons’ quip was apparently taken as marching orders. Trump’s profoundly corrupt/racist deportation blitz dates back to March 2025, when he falsely invoked Alien Enemies Act of 1798, allowing “immediate deportation of anyone suspected of connections to a terrorist organization.”
UPDATE (March 17, 2026): Officials in Social Circle, Georgia—site of a massive warehouse purchased by ICE for one of many proposed concentration camps, as explained above—took gloves off after lack of cooperation from Trump’s DHS.
Sam Sachs, reporting for Atlanta’s ABC affiliate WSB-TV, notes that the town turned off utilities to the facility until answers are provided as to how the site will use water and sewer without straining services for the surrounding area.
City of Social Circle has taken a new step in its debate with the federal government over a detention center in the city. Social Circle City Manager Eric Taylor already told Channel 2 that the city planned to challenge detention center plans by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
[snip]
Social Circle has cut off water and sewer services at the warehouse-turned-detention center and put a lock on the water meter. A city representative confirmed to Channel 2 Action News that the lock was on and will stay on unless more information is provided to the city.
ICE has not provided any feasibility studies or utility plans despite Social Circle officials’ attempts to obtain them. Further, they say water and sewer will remain off “until ICE indicates how water and sewer to the facility will be served without exceeding the limited infrastructure capacity.”
AUTHOR FOOTNOTE
Since this deal dropped, much has been made of how spectacularly the “federal” “government” overpaid for a property owned by Russian company PNK. That appears to be the case. (More on that in a moment.) But what I find odd is that there’s at least some evidence in property records that the parcel itself was vastly inflated prior: a previous-owning entity called WaltonLeaf LLC sold to Russia-linked RNK in 2023 for $29,392,500. Based on established value from year following ($5,521,590, in 2022), the Walton County property surged in value by more than 430% in 12 months.
True, in the intervening years the property saw the addition of a modern, new warehouse with apparently lots of amenities. Even with those improvements, though, the increased value seems excessive. (Writer’s note: I worked my local real-estate sources here in Atlanta on this story and came up empty. If you have knowledge and can help me update this entry, please reach out.)
Anyways, the new purchase by Donald’s associates haven’t, at least as of this writing, hit the tax records yet. But if the reporting on that sales price bears out, the U.S. government—using our tax dollars, presumably—paid a spectacular premium on top of the increase I mentioned earlier.
All tolled, this property went from $5,521,590 sales price in 2022 to a 2026 sales price of $128,555,500—which represents a 2,228.23% increase in 4 years. The company involved in brokering the deal is, reportedly, Binswanger, and I’ve reached out to them for comment. The Jacobin piece I linked to below has a long-read that details how some real-estate brokers are earning bank on these lucrative deals.
Newfangled warehouse or not, something’s rotten in the state of Denmark. And it ain’t the cheese.
Footnote Update: When faced with guerrilla tactics by disgraced fascists, THIS is the type of response for which the moment calls. “Tripling” the size of a small community would presumably have a devastating impact on residents of Social Circle and, as any elected representative will tell you, it’s Job No. 1 of any public official to defend safety and wellbeing of residents in their charge. We can only hope that other communities where these facilities are being planned react to them with the same level of verve and tenacity. Further updates as events warrant.
