{"id":140464,"date":"2026-02-20T21:43:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T21:43:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/140464\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T21:43:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T21:43:07","slug":"did-ice-just-buy-an-n-j-warehouse-to-convert-into-a-detention-center-its-complicated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/140464\/","title":{"rendered":"Did ICE just buy an N.J. warehouse to convert into a detention center? It\u2019s complicated."},"content":{"rendered":"

Confusion spread through the Garden State on Wednesday after reports that Immigration and Customs Enforcement purchased a controversial warehouse<\/a> in Roxbury to turn it into a detention center. <\/p>\n

A news report, initially published<\/a> Wednesday, cited federal officials confirming the Roxbury warehouse off Route 46 had been purchased by ICE.<\/p>\n

The news sparked outrage from Democratic congressional members, including Sen. Cory Booker who issued a statement condemning<\/a> the reported purchase as \u201can affront to the Roxbury community who resoundingly rejected the prospect of a facility weeks ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wednesday night, an ICE spokesperson told NJ.com that \u201cwe have no new detention centers to announce in New Jersey at this time.\u201d <\/p>\n

The statement said detention centers \u201cwill not be warehouses – they will be very well structured detention facilities meeting our regular detention standards.\u201d<\/p>\n

By Thursday morning, Roxbury\u2019s mayor issued a statement disputing reports that ICE had purchased the building. <\/p>\n

\u201cAs of yesterday, February 18, 2026, following direct communication with the current property owner, they have advised that there is no contract in place with any prospective buyer for the property in question,\u201d Roxbury Mayor Shawn Potillo said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have reached out to DHS for clarification as well,\u201d he added. \u201cThey have responded, stating that their original statement was issued without proper approval and that no facility was purchased in Roxbury.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Wednesday evening, U.S. Rep. Robert Menendez Jr. and several other Democratic congressional members launched a statewide effort<\/a> to oppose a detention center in Roxbury. <\/p>\n

\u201cI have personally witnessed abhorrent conditions at Delaney Hall, and the idea that this Administration wants to replicate them at an even bigger scale at warehouses not meant for human occupancy is horrific,\u201d Menendez said in the statement. <\/p>\n

On Jan. 13, more than a month before the confusion over the warehouse purchase, Roxbury Township\u2019s mayor and council unanimously approved a resolution <\/a>opposing an immigration detention center in the township. The next day, protesters lined Route 46<\/a> to demonstrate their opposition to a detention center. <\/p>\n

Local officials have serious concerns about infrastructure capacity at the warehouse, including water, sewer and public safety issues, if the location is eventually converted into a detention facility. <\/p>\n

ICE said in its statement that the agency was planning expansions to their detention facilities. A report from the New York Times found <\/a>the Roxbury warehouse, if converted into a detention facility, could add 1,500 beds to the state\u2019s detention centers. <\/p>\n

The facility would be the state\u2019s third detention center and the largest in New Jersey. ICE officials did not answer questions about whether a potential facility in Roxbury would be privately run. <\/p>\n

GEO Group operates Delaney Hall in Newark, which has 1,000 beds. The Elizabeth Detention Center, owned and operated by CoreCivic, is much smaller. <\/p>\n

Besides detention centers, ICE expanded its footprint in New Jersey by leasing office space in Roseland to house about 40 attorneys and paralegals.<\/p>\n

Gov. Mikie Sherrill has aggressively moved to rein in ICE\u2019s tactics<\/a> in her first month in office, proposing legislation to limit the state\u2019s cooperation with the federal agency and force ICE agents not to wear masks in public. <\/p>\n

Sherrill also signed an executive order limiting where ICE can operate <\/a>on state property and established a database for the public to upload videos of interactions with ICE officials. <\/p>\n

NJ.com staff writer Steve Strunsky contributed reporting to this article. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Confusion spread through the Garden State on Wednesday after reports that Immigration and Customs Enforcement purchased a controversial…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":140465,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":["post-140464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-staten-island","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-staten-island","tag-staten-island-headlines","tag-staten-island-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140464"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140464\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}