Communities Oppose Expansion of
Concentration Camps
Action against ICE, Milwaukee WI, July 2, 2026
Across the U.S., communities and towns are opposing and defeating attempts by the Trump administration to expand the network of immigration detention camps run by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Efforts are being made to purchase large warehouses and use military facilities to be able to detain 100,000 people at any given time.
The expansion is indicative of greater attacks against immigrants and refugees as well as against protesters and all those standing up for rights. The Prairieland 9, for example, who protested outside that detention facility in Texas on July 4, 2025, have been give extremely long sentences, totalling 450 years, including one for 100 years -- for standing with people detained!
In communities in Maryland, Minnesota, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Utah, Virginia, and elsewhere, people have united to welcome and protect immigrants and refugees and for ICE to stay out and be abolished. Municipal officials are among those taking a stand, with these warehouses expected to house thousands of people, putting extreme and unsustainable pressure on water and sewer systems. Some of the warehouses have three-four toilets for what will be thousands of people.
Detention Watch Network reported on May 21, "The city of Social Circle, Georgia has filed a lawsuit against ICE over the agency's plans to convert a local warehouse into a massive, 10,000-bed detention site. For months, ICE has been moving to open the detention facility without complying with environmental regulations or coordinating with the town and local community.
"ICE is scouting, purchasing and retrofitting warehouses nationwide for immigration detention, which are expected to detain between 1,500-10,000 people each. These detention warehouses are a part of the Trump regime's mass detention expansion plan that will put an immense strain on local infrastructure, including roads, water and sewer systems, emergency services, and other essential public resources. In Social Circle, a town of just 5,000 people, the proposed warehouse detention site would triple the town's population, consume more than a million gallons of additional fresh water per day, and require wastewater management far beyond the town's existing capacity.
"Confining people in large-scale, makeshift detention warehouses will exponentially increase the likelihood for abuse, infectious disease and death in ICE custody, as ICE cuts people off from their loved ones and support networks, subjecting them to conditions meant for storing products, never people."
Advocates issued the following statements:
Nery Lopez, Senior Organizer at Detention Watch Network, said: "All immigration detention is inherently inhumane and rife with abuse, and yet the warehouse model currently being pursued by ICE is particularly horrifying. People are not commodities to be shipped, discarded, and profited off of in detention warehouses or any detention facility -- full stop. Local communities are making it clear from coast to coast -- they don't want detention centres or warehouse detention, and they will fight tooth and nail to block ICE. We demand an end to Trump's cruel mass detention expansion and that detention facilities be shut down for good."
Priyanka Bhatt, Senior Staff Attorney at Project South, speaking about Social Circles refusal to have a concentration camp said: "This administration's disregard for human life has reached a new level. It is an abomination that warehouses built for manufacturing items and commercial use are being repurposed to cage thousands of human beings across the country. But we will not stay silent. We stand in solidarity with Social Circle and with all the courageous acts of resistance and resilience across the country fighting back against this administration's attack on our communities."
Samantha Hamilton, Senior Staff Attorney at Asian Americans Advancing Justice -- Atlanta, said: "Whenever a detention centre has opened up in Georgia, it has not made communities safer. Instead, it has expanded ICE's sphere of violence from inside the facility -- where people are routinely assaulted and dehumanized -- to the surrounding communities outside. But the people of Social Circle have said no. ICE's attempt to pull the wool over people's eyes and push this warehouse plan through has been met with resistance from the start. We applaud the people of Social Circle in taking the decisive step of suing the Trump administration to stand up against ICE terror."
(Detention Watch Network)
This article was published in
Volume 56
Number 5 - July 4, 2026
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/TML2026/Articles/TS56056.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca