Federal immigration detention plans are getting scaled back in at least three states after local governments pushed back hard on the Trump administration’s warehouse prison proposals, with new Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin negotiating compromises his predecessor Kristi Noem didn’t offer.
The shifts come as the Department of Homeland Security faces a funding shutdown now past 60 days, and as communities from Arizona to Georgia force the federal government to the table on facility size, taxes, and basic infrastructure.
What changed in Surprise
The clearest example is in Surprise, Arizona, where DHS had planned to house up to 1,500 immigrants starting as soon as this May in a 418,000-square-foot distribution center the department bought for $70 million in January. That plan is now down to 542 detainees, with an opening date pushed to October at the earliest. DHS also agreed to pay the city $300,000 a year to cover lost property taxes, and the department may put more money toward local police costs.
That’s a two-thirds cut. Surprise Mayor Kevin Sartor told a local radio show April 15 that the city’s experience under Mullin has been night-and-day compared to how Surprise found out about the purchase in the first place: through news reports. “With the new leadership there’s been a lot of communication,” Sartor said, calling the earlier process “very frustrating.”
Mullin, in an April 16 CNBC interview, drew a direct contrast with Noem. “We do have a different leadership style,” he said. “We want to make sure people understand that we’re here working for the people, not against you.”
Dozens of Arizona Democratic state lawmakers sent a letter in April urging Surprise to “stop the facility from opening at all costs.” Sartor said he doesn’t see a legal basis for a lawsuit. Registered Republicans outnumber Democrats in Surprise by nearly 2-to-1, and the mayor’s office is nonpartisan.
Maryland and Georgia
The pattern holds in Williamsport, Maryland, where DHS bought a warehouse for $102 million in January and initially planned to hold 1,500 detainees. The department has since offered the same scale-back, down to 542. An April 15 court order paused most construction on that facility while Maryland continues a lawsuit citing what the state calls “impacts on the environmental, economic, and public health and safety interests of the state.”
Georgia took a more direct approach. In Social Circle, a small city locked the water meter at a local wastewater treatment facility the city said would be overwhelmed by a plan to convert a nearby warehouse into a holding site for up to 10,000 immigrants. No water, no facility. DHS was left weighing whether to truck in water and haul out sewage. U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, a Georgia Democrat, visited the wastewater facility in March to document the situation firsthand.
The money behind the expansion
These negotiations are all playing out against the backdrop of a $45 billion detention funding approval that is driving a nationwide push to build out immigration holding capacity at a scale the U.S. has not seen before. That funding, approved by Congress, gives DHS the financial weight to move fast on acquisitions. Whether local governments can slow or stop individual facilities depends almost entirely on what legal or infrastructure pressure they can apply.
The DHS detention standards maintained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement set minimum requirements for water access, sanitation, and medical care. Social Circle’s water meter move forced a direct test of how those standards get met when a host community refuses to cooperate.
For advocates tracking the expansion, the Surprise and Williamsport compromises don’t end the fight. The ACLU’s national immigrant rights project has flagged large-scale warehouse detention as a safety risk regardless of headcount, citing inadequate ventilation and limited medical access in converted industrial spaces.
The 542-detainee figure that DHS keeps offering in negotiations isn’t arbitrary. It matches the rated capacity for a standard ICE contract detention facility, suggesting the department has a template it’s working from as Mullin tries to defuse community opposition one city at a time.
Surprise’s city council gets a formal briefing on the revised agreement next month. In Williamsport, the lawsuit moves forward while the court order holds construction.
