DHS cancela plan para centro masivo de detención del ICE en Socorro

The Trump administration is abandoning plans to convert a nearly one million square-foot warehouse complex in Socorro into an immigration detention center and training facility for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-El Paso.

The Department of Homeland Security has transferred the Socorro warehouses to the General Services Administration, the federal agency responsible for managing government properties, Escobar said Tuesday. The facilities will be sold and will no longer be used for detention purposes, she said.

The facility, purchased by DHS in February for $123 million, was designed to house up to 8,500 people and would have been the largest immigration detention facility in the country. The reversal comes after months of opposition from local groups and Catholic parishes over concerns about water supply and infrastructure strain in Socorro, a community of about 30,000 people southeast of El Paso.

ElBishop Mark Seitz said in late July that "human beings should not be treated like sardinas," according to El Paso Matters. Parishioners at Socorro's three Catholic parishes raised moral and practical objections to the detention plan.

The decision to abandon the Socorro project marks at least the ninth warehouse complex of 11 purchased nationwide by the federal government for $1 billion to be scrapped, according to El Paso Matters. DHS indicated in recent weeks it was moving away from the detention expansion plan, stating it would "utilize existing detention space with our state and county partners," a DHS spokesperson said.

During a news conference Tuesday, Escobar acknowledged the reversal but cautioned that the federal government may pursue detention expansion elsewhere in her district. She declined to speculate on why DHS reversed course, saying it was not solely due to water and infrastructure concerns. She noted the federal government has sufficient funding to address such challenges, citing the example of Camp East Montana, which trucks water in and wastewater out.

Escobar said Socorro had been developing an economic growth plan and that the detention facility would have threatened the community's future development. DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment, according to El Paso Matters.