Jim Pattison, pictured in 2019, is one of Canada’s wealthiest business magnates, with a conglomerate spanning real estate, grocery chains, car dealerships, media and more.DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
A suburban county in central Virginia is considering its legal options over a plan by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to purchase a warehouse property owned by Vancouver-based Jim Pattison Developments to use as a holding and processing centre.
The proposed sale has sparked opposition on both sides of the border as the federal agency faces intensifying scrutiny for its aggressive enforcement tactics and what critics describe as a growing culture of impunity. Canadians are organizing boycotts of businesses tied to billionaire-philanthropist Jim Pattison, while residents in Virginia are planning demonstrations.
“Business deals do not exist in a vacuum,” said Krista Ball, an author in Edmonton who urged Canadians to contact their members of Parliament. “ICE stated they wished to buy it for a ‘holding and processing’ facility. The images and scenes coming out of the U.S. right now have alarmed many Canadians, who are watching helplessly as violence plays out day after day involving that same organization.”
Explainer: What to know about ICE, the U.S. federal immigration agency
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security informed Hanover County of its intentions in a Jan. 21 letter to its planning department.
“ICE is proposing to purchase, occupy and rehabilitate a 43.49-acre warehouse property in support of ICE operations,” the letter said. It stated that site modifications could include construction of holding and processing spaces, installing tentage and a guard shack, and adding security equipment.
Hanover County confirmed receipt of the letter the following day and issued a public statement saying the local government did not initiate the project. The county has 30 days from receipt of the letter to respond, and said it would discuss the matter at its next regularly scheduled meeting on Wednesday.
Jim Pattison Developments and the Jim Pattison Group did not respond to requests for comment.
Federal immigration agents detain a man during an operation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol in St. Paul, Minn., on Tuesday.OCTAVIO JONES/AFP/Getty Images
On Wednesday, Hanover County’s board of governors will have an in-camera meeting with legal counsel, discussing “county zoning and regulatory authority related to federal government uses,” according to its agenda. The meeting will then open to the public; dozens of people have registered to speak.
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Lauren Natale, who lives south of the warehouse property in Richmond, Va., said she took issue with the prospect of allowing a massive detention centre operated by an agency that has been accused of detaining people without due process and disregarding constitutional rights.
“You cannot be law enforcement while not following the law yourself,” she said. “And these people are not following the law.”
When Ms. Natale, a former teacher, learned of the proposed sale, she created and distributed flyers imploring people to attend Wednesday’s meeting.
Michael Berdan, a lawyer in Ashland, the town where the warehouse property is located, said locals across the political spectrum appear to be uniting against the sale.
Left-leaning residents are aghast at ICE violating human rights in their backyard, he said, while those on the right are disappointed that the new occupant is not an Amazon warehouse or some other business that would employ locals and pay local tax.
Mr. Berdan, who grew up visiting British Columbia every year from his hometown of Seattle, said the prospective sale is surprising to him given what he understands as Mr. Pattison’s penchant for philanthropy in the service of public health.
“This deal would significantly undermine that and be a real blight on the company and its legacy,” Mr. Berdan said in an interview, adding that he plans to protest at Wednesday’s meeting.
Mary Bauer, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Virginia chapter, said the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign has created a humanitarian crisis in ICE facilities.
“The last thing Virginia needs is to expand the federal government’s deadly immigration detention machine,” she said in a statement to The Globe and Mail.
Mr. Pattison is one of Canada’s wealthiest business magnates, with a conglomerate spanning real estate, grocery chains, car dealerships, media and more. He has an extensive record of large-scale philanthropy, including a $75-million donation to Vancouver’s St. Paul’s Foundation in 2017.
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Property records show Jim Pattison Developments has owned the property since late 2022, adding a 553,000-square-foot warehouse building in 2024. The company is listed in advertising materials for the site along with commercial real estate company JLL, which did not respond to requests for comment.
The Globe reported last week that Vancouver-based Hootsuite Inc. has been pursuing business with ICE, securing a US$95,000 pilot project in September, more than five years after employee backlash forced the tech company to cancel a contract to provide social-media management services to the agency.
Hootsuite chief executive Irina Novoselsky defended the decision, saying her company does business with “a lot of polarizing non-profits and other organizations, and as long as these enterprises follow our terms of service, that’s our line.”
With a report from Mike Hager