Georgia warehouses once planned for ICE detention centers now listed for sale after local opposition

Federal officials have officially cancelled plans to turn two large warehouses in Georgia into immigration detention centres. Both properties have now been listed for sale following strong public and political opposition. The decision is a major win for local communities in Douglas and Jackson counties, which strongly opposed the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) proposal. The cancelled plan included turning a huge warehouse in Lithia Springs into a detention centre that could hold up to 10,000 people. Critics described it as a "mass incarceration" facility that would change the character of the community. The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA), the federal agency that manages government property, confirmed that both the Lithia Springs warehouse and another large property in Braselton are now considered surplus government property and are available for sale.The massive detention center projectThe federal plan first emerged in 2020 and 2021. It was part of a wider ICE effort to change how immigration detention was handled. According to reports from the American Immigration Council, the agency wanted to move towards government-owned, modular processing centres. These centres would be created by changing commercial warehouses to meet detention needs. ICE wanted facilities that could easily expand or adjust to changing operational needs. The planned facilities were much larger than anything previously proposed in the region.