Swing state Dems demand DHS halt planned ICE detention center: 'Must not move forward'
Five Democratic U.S. Representatives from Michigan sent a letter on Thursday to Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin to oppose the development of a planned ICE detention facility in Romulus.Rep. Haley Stevens of Birmingham led the letter and was joined by Reps. Debbie Dingell of Ann Arbor, Hillary Scholten of Grand Rapids, Kristen McDonald Rivet of Bay City, and Shri Thanedar of Detroit — almost the entire Democratic delegation to the U.S. House from Michigan, except for Rep. Rashida Tlaib, who has also been actively fighting against the detention center’s opening. The detention center is in Thanedar’s district.The letter lays out a number of arguments that have been well-worn against the detention center — including local opposition and zoning concerns and environmental regulations for the area’s floodplain and wetlands.“In response to initial press inquiries, an ICE spokesperson stated that new detention ‘sites will undergo community impact studies and rigorous due diligence process to make sure there is no hardship on local utilities or infrastructure prior to purchase’,” the representatives wrote. “No local officials were consulted about any such study or due diligence, raising questions about whether the analysis was completed before the purchase of the facility and, if it did occur, the accuracy of the work.”“Given these dynamics, it is clear DHS must not move forward with the planned Romulus detention facility,” the letter continues, noting that Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel and the City of Romulus have already sued in federal court to stop or slow the detention center’s development.GET THE MORNING HEADLINES. SUBSCRIBEStevens and Scholten have also been vocally opposed to the major ICE detention facility in Michigan that is currently operating, the North Lake Processing Center in Baldwin, a facility privately owned by GEO Group and contracted as an ICE detention center, especially in the wake of the December 2025 death of Nenko Gantchev at the Baldwin facility.A hunger strike at that facility and concerns about the conditions for detainees were further cited as reasons not to open a second major detention facility, this time owned by ICE, in Michigan.Both U.S. Senators from Michigan, Elissa Slotkin and Gary Peters, sent a similar letter to then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in February with a series of questions on planned capacity, staffing levels, and environmental or economic impact analysis.Thursday’s letter noted that Slotkin and Peters received no response to that letter and re-emphasized their questions, but also added new questions about the scope and timeline for reviewing DHS contracts and the property acquisition process for the purchase of the Romulus property.The letter also comes as a group of local advocates and organizers has been heavily criticizing Gov. Gretchen Whitmer for her relative silence on the development of the detention center, with Nessel and federal elected officials taking a much more vocal and active stance against it.
