{"id":140946,"date":"2026-02-21T13:09:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T13:09:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/140946\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T13:09:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T13:09:08","slug":"ice-has-purchased-n-j-warehouse-for-use-as-a-detention-center-officials-confirm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/140946\/","title":{"rendered":"ICE has purchased N.J. warehouse for use as a detention center, officials confirm"},"content":{"rendered":"

The warehouse in Roxbury at the center of public controversy over whether it will become a U.S. Immigration and Customs Detention center<\/a> was sold on Friday, according to a social media post from U.S. Sen. Cory Booker<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cICE reportedly closed<\/a> a deal worth tens of millions of dollars to warehouse human beings in Roxbury, New Jersey,\u201d Booker, D-N.J., said on X<\/a>. \u201cIt betrays everything this community stands for and then hands them the bill.\u201d<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Booker\u2019s office said Roxbury Mayor Shawn Potillo confirmed the sale.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet us be clear: Roxbury Township will not passively accept this outcome,\u201d the township said in a statement released Friday evening. \u201cThe Township Council and our legal team have been preparing to pursue all available legal remedies.\u201d<\/p>\n

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement<\/a> said: \u201cICE purchased a facility in Roxbury, New Jersey. <\/p>\n

\u201cThese will not be warehouses \u2014 they will be very well-structured detention facilities meeting our regular detention standards,” an ICE spokesman said.<\/p>\n

The agency\u2019s statement said construction at the facility would creating 1,300 jobs and create $39.2 million in tax revenue. The site would undergo community impact studies and other due diligence to ensure the facility would not place a hardship on the local infrastructure and utilities. <\/p>\n

\u201cICE\u2019s purchase of a warehouse in Roxbury Township \u2014 after lying to the public and saying it had not done so earlier this week \u2014 is the latest lie and betrayal of the public\u2019s trust by the Trump Administration,\u201d U.S. Rep. Rob Menendez<\/a>, D-8th Dist., said in a statement. \u201cDHS and ICE have repeatedly and maliciously lied to the American public while they continue to relentlessly attack our communities.\u201d <\/p>\n

The No ICE North Jersey Alliance said Friday it will continue to oppose the detention center. <\/p>\n

\u201cOur goal remains the same, though the fight has today taken on a different dimension,\u201d said spokesperson William Angus. \u201cBoth public protests and pressure on elected officials and involved parties will continue \u2014 because the only acceptable outcome is for the property to remain a warehouse for goods, not people.\u201d<\/p>\n

The warehouse off Route 46 has been the subject of controversy after it was discovered ICE was considering purchasing the property to open a third detention center in New Jersey. <\/p>\n

There was widespread confusion on Wednesday after a news report was published saying the warehouse was sold, citing a statement from ICE.<\/p>\n

The news sparked outrage from Democratic congressional members, including Booker, who issued a statement on Wednesday 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

An ICE spokesperson told NJ.com on Wednesday night 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 \u2014 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 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, Menendez 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<\/a> and fellow Democrats in the state Legislature, have aggressively moved to rein in ICE\u2019s tactics<\/a> in recent months. That includes legislation that would limit the state\u2019s cooperation with the federal agency and force ICE agents not to wear masks in public.<\/p>\n

Sherrill, a Democrat in her first month in office, 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","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The warehouse in Roxbury at the center of public controversy over whether it will become a U.S. Immigration…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":140947,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":["post-140946","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\/140946","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=140946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140946\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}