convert warehouses into detention centers by Sept. 30<\/a> under the President Donald Trump administration\u2019s mass deportation plan.<\/p>\n\u201cFrom a technical standpoint, I don\u2019t know how some of these timelines that are being talked about are going to be met,\u201d said Gilbert Trejo, a vice president and chief engineer for El Paso Water. \u201cDetention center in eight months? How? All this work needs to be done.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ICE-aeriel-center-pic.png\")
A photo from a Department of Homeland Security letter shows an aerial view of the facility DHS plans to convert to a mega detention center. <\/p>\n
The engineering work and infrastructure needed to incorporate a mega detention center into the utility\u2019s water system may not be completed until after the November midterm elections \u2013 raising questions about whether Congress would rescind funding for the proposed detention center here and halt the project if Democrats win the House and Senate.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think DHS clearly wanted to get this up before the end of the year, because they\u2019re also aware that there\u2019s a potential, with a new Congress, that could totally jeopardize funding,\u201d said state Rep. Vince Perez, D-El Paso. \u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s any way that they are going to be able to get this done before the end of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Perez and other elected officials with the city and county governments oppose the new detention center and said the federal government hasn\u2019t coordinated with them on the facility.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The water infrastructure isn\u2019t in place to serve a facility that Perez estimates could use somewhere around 850,000 gallons of water per day.<\/p>\n
In a statement, a spokesperson for Immigration and Customs Enforcement said the federal One Big Beautiful Bill expanded funding for ICE to establish new, massive detention centers. The agency is developing the mega detention center in El Paso, as well as similar facilities in Georgia and Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt should not come as news that ICE will be making arrests in states across the U.S. and is actively working to expand detention space,\u201d the spokesperson said in an email, offering the same comment it has provided to the media for months. \u201cThese will not be warehouses \u2014 they will be very well-structured detention facilities meeting our regular detention standards.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ICE-aeriel-center-pic-2.png\")
A photo from a Department of Homeland Security letter shows an aerial view of the facility DHS plans to convert to a mega detention center. <\/p>\n
The Lower Valley Water District serves the area where the detention center property will be located, and the small utility purchases all of the water it supplies to its 21,000 customers from city-owned El Paso Water through a long-term contract. LVWD pumps about 6.5 million gallons of water to customers daily, compared with 110 million gallons that El Paso Water supplies to its customers in a typical day.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Trejo said El Paso Water and the Lower Valley Water District both have to conduct a comprehensive analysis of their systems and do a lot of engineering work to understand how an 8,500-person detention center would impact water supplies in the Borderland.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Some of the complexities Trejo laid out include figuring out which of the four points of connection between El Paso and LVWD would be affected by an increase in water demand in the Lower Valley. El Paso Water would have to figure out how to move water throughout the city to supply more to LVWD while also juggling supplies from different sources such as the Rio Grande, groundwater wells on the Westside and the desalination plant near the airport.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do all that, and then we will say, \u2018All right, we are being impacted quantifiably in these ways. We know this is what is needed to serve you.\u2019 Which translates to pipelines, tanks, pump stations, God forbid, a new water treatment plant,\u201d Trejo said. \u201cAnd then we would say \u2018Lower Valley Water District, to meet your needs, this is what you\u2019re going to have to pay for.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/CB_ICEWarehouse-49.jpg\")
The Lower Valley Water District provides water and waste services to the residents of southeast El Paso County, March 20, 2026. (Corrie Boudreaux\/El Paso Matters)<\/p>\n
El Paso Water\u2019s governing board earlier this month sent a letter to Gerald Grijalva, general manager of the Lower Valley Water District, asking the district to show whether it can meet demand from a big, new customer such as a detention facility.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Lower Valley Water District, I will say, they\u2019re not set up for this type of demand. They are set up for being residential, with a very small commercial (customer base), very basic,\u201d Trejo said. \u201cWhen you start introducing manufacturing and industrial, it\u2019s a whole different ballgame.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis type of engineering is not done in a couple of weeks or a couple of months,\u201d he said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/IMG_6364-scaled-e1740778732359-1024x648.jpg\")
Gilbert Trejo, El Paso Water\u2019s vice president of engineering, operations and technical services, speaks with reporters at the groundbreaking of the utility\u2019s Advanced Water Purification Plant on February 27, 2025. (Diego Mendoza-Moyers \/ El Paso Matters)<\/p>\n
The three warehouses that DHS bought were built within the last 15 years. LVWD put in a water line to the facility when it was built under the assumption it would be a commercial warehouse, not a large detention complex housing people around-the-clock.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was approved by us from the engineering standpoint as a warehouse, not necessarily a housing facility,\u201d Grijalva said in an interview. \u201cSo, it became more occupancy than we expected. \u2026 And more water, obviously.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Can water service be denied to the new ICE facility?<\/p>\n
El Paso city and county leaders in early February formally opposed the proposed mega detention center, although they have limited authority over federal immigration policies.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Despite the opposition, neither El Paso Water nor the Lower Valley Water District can deny water service to the facility. They can, however, charge the federal government the cost of additional infrastructure necessary to provide service.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIs it feasibly possible? Yes. Do they need to work to fix the flow? Yes. Are we going to deny it? We can\u2019t,\u201d Grijalva said. \u201cIf you have water and you deny it to somebody, they\u2019re going to sue you. That\u2019s all there is to it.\u201d<\/p>\n
And even though El Paso Water is city-owned, the city did not direct El Paso Water to try to deny service to the detention center, Trejo said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Whether the federal government builds the detention facility or not, Trejo said El Paso Water had planned for months to ask LVWD to review its system before the two utilities renegotiate their water supply contract that\u2019s been in place since 1989. It expires in a few years.\u00a0<\/p>\n
What\u2019s the impact on Lower Valley water service and rates?\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
To accommodate the detention center, Grijalva said LVWD could place a large water tank on the property to store water and prevent a drop in water pressure for customers further down the water line. The utility last October had to issue a boil water notice<\/a> to customers after a loss of water pressure in the system.<\/p>\n\u201cWe want to make sure that we have pressure all the way down the line to make sure that everybody here \u2013 not only the facility, the customers \u2013 are covered,\u201d Grijalva said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The federal government will have to pay the full cost of any new infrastructure LVWD has to build to serve water to the detention facility, Grijalva said, including the cost of a water tank.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re going to have to,\u201d he said. \u201cWe can\u2019t be funding all this or that for free.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Lower Valley Water District hasn\u2019t communicated with the federal government about a plan to develop water infrastructure for the detention center, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now, it\u2019s a warehouse,\u201d Grijalva said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve yet to meet with somebody that\u2019s going to tell us that, \u2018We\u2019re the contractor. We\u2019ve got these engineers, we want to talk to you about a facility that houses 8,000 to 10,000 people,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cThey haven\u2019t talked to us about that yet.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ICE-interior-pic.png\")
The interior of one of the warehouse buildings ICE purchased in the Lower Valley with plans to convert it to a mega detention center. (Department of Homeland Security)<\/p>\n
The most likely scenario, Grijalva said, is that the federal government or a contractor provides plans for the detention center to LVWD, which would then craft a list of projects and funding required to enable water service to the facility.<\/p>\n
Alaska-based Coho Construction Management LLC on Jan. 16 was awarded a $4 million contract for inspection and engineering services to support an ICE facility in El Paso, government records show. The contract carries a seven-month term to end in August, with a potential total award of more than $13 million.<\/p>\n
On Jan. 27, officials with the Department of Homeland Security sent a letter to the Texas Historical Commission claiming the site isn\u2019t home to important archaeological and historical artifacts.<\/p>\n
To Perez, the letter showed the federal government proceeded with the detention center project well before elected officials, utility executives or the public in El Paso were aware.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the letter demonstrates just how much work had already been done towards this facility, but there was zero coordination with local folks,\u201d Perez said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are doing things without any significant public input, without any local feedback,\u201d he said of DHS. \u201cAnd I think that\u2019s the most concerning thing, especially for a facility like this that has significant implications for a community such as ours.\u201d<\/p>\n
The three parcels ICE purchased had an assessed value of $26.8 million last year, according to the El Paso Central Appraisal District. That\u2019s almost $100 million less than the purchase price, although real estate market values typically far exceed assessed property values used by the CAD for taxation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
ICE in a statement said the facility\u2019s construction will bring over 9,200 jobs to El Paso and contribute over $200 million in tax revenue. It\u2019s not clear over what time that tax revenue would materialize. Also unclear is the source of that projected tax revenue; federal facilities are exempt from local property taxes, but employees working at the site could generate local sales and income tax revenue.<\/p>\n
Related<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The planned migrant detention center that could hold thousands just off Interstate 10 in far East El Paso…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":226936,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[138,140,63791,139],"class_list":{"0":"post-226935","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-el-paso","8":"tag-el-paso","9":"tag-el-paso-headlines","10":"tag-el-paso-ice-detention-centers","11":"tag-el-paso-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226935"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226935\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}