Locals say ‘no’ to ICE

Residents object to rumors of area detention center

Elected officials and government staff in Social Circle and Walton County were continuing to work feverishly this week to find anyone in the state or federal government, or anywhere else, with concrete information about a draft proposal from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement identifying Social Circle as a potential location for an immigrant detention facility that could hold as many as 10,000 people.

In the meantime, a Tuesday evening meeting organized by the One Circle Community Coalition, a Social Circle citizens’ group, drew more than 100 people as a first step in organizing local opposition to the proposed detention center. The coalition was formed late last year to improve communication between the city’s elected officials, the city government staff and city residents.

Arguments against the facility are centering on the city’s limitations in water and sewer service, and the proposed facility’s likely location within 4,000 feet of a city elementary school. Other arguments are centered on the facts that a federally owned or leased property wouldn’t be subject to property taxes, that the city doesn’t have adequate emergency services resources to respond to issues at a detention center, and that the likely location’s proximity to a city road would present a security issue.

Word that Social Circle was under consideration as a possible detention center site, as ICE apparently is moving toward a more organized system for detaining illegal immigrants and deporting them to their home countries, came in a report late last month in The Washington Post.

The reporter who wrote the story was at Tuesday’s meeting, and said his source material for the story was a “draft version of a contracting procurement document that they’re planning to put out a bid for private companies to come and run these facilities” in 23 cities. As is the case in Social Circle, the reporter said, “None of the cites have gotten any word from local, state or federal authorities so far” in connection with the draft proposal.

The reporter couldn’t say if the document had ever been sent out, or whether Social Circle was included in any final version of the document.

He did say he was continuing to work the story, telling the Tuesday crowd, “Like you, I’m trying to learn all that I can.”

Since publication of The Washington Post story, attempts by local officials to find out more about the proposal have thus far been largely fruitless.

At Tuesday’s coalition meeting, Social Circle City Manager Eric Taylor said he, along with Mayor David Keener and members of the city council “have been really beating the drums trying to figure out how we can get more information about this project, and who it is we can reach out to, to properly inform them that Social Circle is just not the right place for (a detention center).

Taylor said that as of Tuesday evening, he and the mayor had reached out to both of Georgia’s U.S. senators, Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff; U.S. Rep. Mike Collins, who represents the city in the U.S. House of Representatives; the offices of Gov. Brian Kemp and Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, and someone with experience working with ICE.

Taylor told the dozens of people gathered for Tuesday’s meeting, which included the Washington Post reporter who wrote the December story, that the mayor’s last conversation with Kemp’s office “was that the governor was reaching out to the White House to see what kind of information he could find out about this.”

For his part, Taylor’s last conversation as of Tuesday afternoon was with Jones, who Taylor said was working to get in touch with “very high contacts in the Department of Homeland Security (for) what information he could find out.”

Taylor said he also met with representatives of Warnock’s office on Tuesday. They are working to contact the congressional liaison for the Department of Homeland Security for more information, Taylor said.

While information is not definitive, the widely held belief among local officials is that the site under consideration for a proposed ICE detention center in Social Circle is an existing 1.2-million square foot warehouse now nearing completion on a 183-acre tract at East Hightower Trail and Social Circle Parkway.

According to Shane Short, president and CEO of the Development Authority of Walton County, the site was recently taken off a list of available properties maintained by the authority for economic development prospects. The removal came at the request of the property owner, listed on county tax records as PNK S1 LLC, with an Atlanta address.

The removal is potentially an indication that the owner has reached an agreement with an entity that wants to use the property, but the owner has indicated to local officials that there is a non-disclosure agreement associated with the property. 

“It’s really a wait and see game at the moment,” Short said of the potential for an ICE detention center to come to Social Circle.

For John Miller, the Social Circle businessman at the head of the One Circle Coalition, who led Tuesday’s meeting, the non-disclosure agreement is “very concerning,” he told the crowd.

“We should have a right to know who our neighbors are,” Miller said, adding that the non-disclosure agreement may also be an indication that plans for a potential ICE detention center in Social Circle are farther along than local officials and residents may now realize, intensifying the need for quick local action on the issue.

Regarding local officials’ reaction to The Washington Post report, Miller said, “I will say that our city, our county … all of them have been extremely available, accessible, willing to talk, willing to share information, and it is a testament to the folks that we have running our government that they are being as proactive as they can.

“There is literally zero daylight between any of us at all as far as what our feelings are about this particular project and whether or not it belongs in our community.”

Miller went on to acknowledge that local officials “have been working tirelessly to get … answers” on the detention center. But beyond that, Miller said citizens also need to be active on the issue. “It is not sufficient for us to sit at home and hope that these things are going to solve themselves,” he said.

Tuesday’s meeting marked just the third gathering of the One Circle Community Coalition, which was formed last year as the city dealt with a flood of requests for establishing data centers.

Development of such facilities, large complexes where digital data is stored, processed and distributed, have been proliferating across Georgia, creating concerns due to their significant need for water and electrical power. 

Regarding the detention center proposal, Miller told the Tuesday crowd that “none of our elected or appointed officials were consulted regarding any aspect of the formulation, draft, or any input whatsoever prior to this (Washington Post) report coming out.”

“That still holds true today, which is one of the more concerning aspects of this whole process,” Miller said.

Miller noted a particular concern Tuesday that “none of our state or even federal representatives seem to know anything about what’s going on here. So the question is, ‘Why is that?’”

Beyond the technical concerns about the city’s ability to host a federal detention center, Miller also expressed concern about the attention such a facility would bring to the city.

“The other thing that hasn’t been mentioned is the potential for unrest in the community from outside entities,” Miller told the Tuesday gathering. “Imagine if we have a federally funded detention center in Social Circe, the only one in Georgia of this size. Imagine the outside influences that are going to show up and protests, demonstrations, and everything in our city. I don’t think that is something that has been addressed appropriately, or even thought about, but that is a real potential. The immigration issue is a hot one, no matter which side of it you’re on.”

As part of its effort to spur community involvement in addressing the detention center issue, the One Circle Community Coalition has included contact information on its Facebook page for a number of federal and state officials, along with suggested text for letters to officials that, among other things, asks that ICE be encouraged to find an alternate location for any proposed detention center.