Trump voters are blocking his ICE warehouses -- and Republicans are leading the fight

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Raw Story/States Newsroom

April 4, 2026 7:27PM ET


WASHINGTON — New Hampshire’s Republican governor, frustrated with little information about the Department of Homeland Security’s plan to put a new detention facility in her state, joined local Democrats to oppose the move and disclosed DHS plans to retrofit warehouses across the nation to expand immigrant detention.

Two Republican members of the U.S. Senate, one who chairs the Armed Services Committee and another running for governor, personally lobbied DHS to find other locations for planned large-scale detention centers in rural Byhalia, Mississippi, and Lebanon, Tennessee. And a city manager for a small town in Georgia that overwhelmingly voted to put President Donald Trump back in the White House placed a lock on a meter to prevent water access to a newly purchased warehouse for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

At every turn, DHS has faced pushback from Republicans in its drive to quickly scale up immigrant detention to 92,600 people by September, a pillar of the president’s mass deportation plan as Trump aims to remove 1 million immigrants without legal status each year. Republicans warn that the move to convert warehouses into hulking detention sites in rural areas will strain local communities’ water, sewage, electricity, heat and health care.

Yet Republicans also cheered Trump’s 2024 campaign rhetoric on deportation, voted to return him to the White House and in Congress last year, GOP lawmakers spearheaded $45 billion for ICE detention. Experts on detention say the growing burden on communities and the subsequent uproar should be no surprise to members of the GOP.

Read more: https://www.rawstory.com/trump-ice-raids-2676666225/

[dutch777]

1. They can buy the warehouses but to make them suitable for detention use has building code challenges

Whether it is a hospital, prison or detention center, anywhere people are housed who due to their physical condition or some level of restraint cannot self save in case of a fire or other emergency, the facility has to have added safety measures like special smoke ventilation, enhanced fire sprinklers and on and on. In addition, most warehouses do not have the kind of water and sewer service to take large human occupancy loads. Bringing warehouses to code will take money and time. Assuming we Dems take Congress over Jan 2027 we can choke off the money. And if our local jurisdictions and governor here in PA are typical, we can delay delay delay with public meetings and permitting requirements not to mention the time it takes to do the needed upgrades. I suspect many of these warehouses will never see a detainee.

[Sailingdiver]

6. The cult politicians don't care.

Those rules/laws are simply suggestions to them.

And, most of the members of the cult don't care either.

[LeftInTX]

8. I dunno. They bought a warehouse here and we are fighting it. Since it's the feds, they can pretty much do whatever...

Maybe they have their own codes? They got the land by emminent domain.

[Bayard]

9. emminent domain

I hadn't heard they were using that land-grabbing tactic.

The fact that they're paying twice what these properties are worth should be getting a lot more press.

[FakeNoose]

10. That might explain why certain property owners are willing to sell to ICE

... but there's no guarantee that the DHS/ICE purchase will trigger the permits necessary to operate these might-as-well-call-them-prisons "Detention Centers." Pennsylvania has already told DHS and ICE that they will never get the permits they need to upgrade or run these operations in our state. I believe other blue states and many blue counties & cities are following suit.

They can't operate detention centers where they don't have the permits. Doesn't matter WHO owns the property.

[ForgoTheConsequence]

2. Republicans aren't leading shit.

[EuterpeThelo]

3. Got that right

My BFF of 30+ years lives in Surprise, AZ. She said the mayor there (an R, of course) is bending over backwards to try to help get the warehouse, which the community does NOT want, installed. Meanwhile, the property values are plummeting and hurting people like her that are opposed to this madness.

[OldBaldy1701E]

4. Godsdamnit!!

We really need to understand one thing.

These are not for 'immigrant detention'.

They are for 'enemy detention'.

And, anyone and everyone is an 'enemy' in their eyes.

Get it?

We really need to stop letting the media get away with this framing. These are going to be concentration camps. For whomever they want to put there.

And, I assure you it won't be just 'immigrants'.

[SunSeeker]

5. This is reflective of the fact that Republicans are the biggest NIMBYs on the planet.

In this case, it’s a good thing.

[Figarosmom]

7. Well that's nice

Even if it's NIMBY instead of being against concentration camps, it's a start.