Roxbury ICE facility put on hold
Trump administration agrees to environmental examination
By: William Westhoven
Morristown Daily Record
USA Today Network - New Jersey
..... The Trump administration has agreed to put tis plans on hold to convert a massive Roxbury warehouse into an immigration detention center until it conducts an environmental review of the project demanded by state and local officials.
.....
A joint stipulation agreement filed on may 12 [2026] in U.S. District Court in Newark outlines the responsibility for the Department of Homeland Security to complete 'certain environmental reviews" under the National Environmental Policy Act.
..... "Since we filed litigation, we've been demanding the federal government back off its rushed construction and operation of an immigration detention center in Roxbury," Governor Mikie Sherrill said in a joint statement that day with New Jersey Atto4eny General Jennifer Davenport and Roxbury Mayor Shawn Potillo.
..... "We've been from the beginning that [the DHS] proposed ICE detention facility in Roxbury will harm the community and won't do anything to make us safer. If DHS conducts a proper analysis, it will discover that this industrial warehouse is no place for a detention center."
..... Messages left with DHS seeking comment weren't immediately returned.
..... Roxbury authorities have objected to the plan to convert the 471,000-square-foot warehouse on Route 46 since rumors first surfaced in December [2025] about U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's plan to establish detention faculties around the country. The Homeland Security department, which includes ICE, has said the sites are needed to process tens of thousands of immigrants in the country illegally who it is seeking to remove in an aggressive deportation campaign.
..... New Jersey officials have said they expect 1,500 people to be housed at the Roxbury site. in an April [2026] legal filling, ICE said it expects a much smaller operation, with no more than 542 detainees.
..... Nonetheless, plans to expand the system have inspired protests in communities coast to coast, including in Roxbury.
..... The all-Republican Roxbury Council unanimously passed a resolution earlier this year [2026] objecting to the plan, saying the town's infrastructure and police force were inadequate to provide sufficient water, electricity and security for the facility.
..... State officials joined Roxbury in the push-back, filing a lawsuit with the township in March. [2026]
U.S. Senators Andy Kim and Cory Booker both Democrats, have visited the site and pledged to resist its opening.
..... In a motion filed in April [2026] in federal court, the state said it needed "emergency judicial relief" as DHS planned to start constructions "as early as late May." ICE responded with it own federal court petition to block the injunction, saying their warnings about the project were premature since a final decision had not been made.
..... The new stipulation puts a hold on the state's request for an injunction on construction and conversion activities at the warehouse, though it does permit federal authorities to fence in the property and install security cameras. Public documents show that the Trump administration agreed in February [2026] to pay $129.3 million for the vacant building.
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"Federal law gives DHS discretion to manage immigration enforcement petitions," the agreement reads. "But federal law constrains how DHS may do so. And those constraints do not permit DHS to transform local neighborhoods into mass detention outposts without fully assessing impacts on state and local infrastructure and resources."
..... The stipulation agreement does not include a deadline for the government to complete its environmental assessment, but directs the government to notify Roxbury and the state of tis findings within seven days of completion. The parities are then directed to propose a schedule to "future proceedings' to the court, including the filing of any motions complaints or renewed motions for a preliminary injunction.
..... It's not clear how long an environmental assessment could delay the project. Neither the stipulation nor Sherrill's statement had a timeline.
.....State Senator Anthony Bucco, a Morris County Republican who is also the Roxbury Township municipal attorney, said federal authorities can take "as long as it takes" to complete their reports.
..... "If DHS continues to plow ahead after conducting its further analysis, we will return to court to seek relief immediately," Sherrill added in her statement.
..... A group of local citizens opposing the project welcomed the agreement.
..... "We're said from the beginning that this site cannot support this facility, and now that ICE will finally have to follow the laws it ignored, that conclusion is unavoidable," said William Angus, co-founder of the No ICE in North Jersey Alliance (Project NINJA).
..... "We'll scrutinize every element of the environmental review, along with our environmental expert colleagues across the state, and if DHS cuts corners or ignores what the experts have been saying for months, New Jersey will be back in federal court."