The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is planning to turn a warehouse into a new immigration detention processing facility in southwest Oklahoma City. It's part of a plan to more efficiently process tens of thousands of detainees at once.
In a letter sent to Oklahoma City officials, the Department of Homeland Security details plans to renovate an existing warehouse sitting on almost 27 acres in the city's south side to fit anywhere from 500 to 1,500 people at a time for initial immigration detention processing.
It's part of an expanding system meant to process up to 80,000 immigration detainees across the nation at any given time, according to The Washington Post.
Once arrested locally by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, detainees are expected to be held for only a few weeks before they're transferred for deportation or moved to a larger, longer-term facility in the United States.
The letter describes how ICE may renovate the building at 2800 S. Council Road in Oklahoma City. The plans include adding holding cells, offices and areas for visitors.
Dated Dec. 23, the letter was addressed to Oklahoma City's Historic Preservation Office in accordance with a law requiring federal authorities to notify cities when they plan to build in a place that may need to be preserved.
It's unclear whether the federal government plans to own or lease the building, or whether a sale or lease agreement is already in place. The location is not listed in the property database of the General Services Administration, which oversees the federal government's real estate.
When asked for details on the property, a GSA spokesperson did not address questions about the site, instead sharing the following statement:
"GSA is proud to support all of our patriotic federal law enforcement partners and help them meet their workspace requirements."
The GSA put out a solicitation for bids for similar structures last fall.
The Oklahoma County Assessor's website lists an address in Kansas for the owners of the property. The property development firm at that address did not return a request for comment.
Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt told The Oklahoman he has not spoken to any federal authorities about the new detention facility, adding that he welcomes any communication from them.
The U.S. Constitution's supremacy clause makes it so that the federal government doesn't have to ask local governments for permission to operate facilities owned or leased by a federal entity.
Still, Sen. Michael Brooks, a Democrat who chairs the Oklahoma Latino Legislative Caucus and lives in South OKC, said opening an immigration detention facility without any local government or public input is federal overreach.
"It's the federal government dictating to state and local governments what's going to happen without giving us any type of local control or input as to how it goes forward," Brooks said.
The facility is blocks from Western Heights High School — about a five-minute drive — and in the heart of Brooks' legislative district, which has a Latino population of 58%.
"I don't live far from this facility," Brooks said. "I drive by it on a daily basis on my way to work."
He said people in his neighborhood and surrounding homeowner's associations are concerned about a half-million-square-foot warehouse being converted into a detention facility.
"Everybody understood that it was a place that was popular for warehouses," he said. "I don't think anyone ever considered the possibility that those warehouses could be converted to warehousing human beings instead of boxes and materials."
There are also concerns about public health and safety, Brooks said.
"The prospect of potential health issues, the potential for people being released from that facility onto the streets without any real access to public transportation to be able to get wherever they need to go, are all great concerns that nobody's discussed at this point," he said.
Brooks noted that the facility was built for shipping and logistics, not for housing people for any amount of time.
"I have grave concerns," he said. "I think it's a tragedy when our federal government is not accountable to the citizens."
Read the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's letter to an Oklahoma City staff member below.
Graycen Wheeler contributed to this report.
