The city of Social Circle, Georgia, has placed a lock on the water meter of a warehouse purchased by Immigration and Customs Enforcement for use as an immigration detention facility. Officials cited concerns over exceeding local water and sewer capacity. The Department of Homeland Security countered that the site includes measures to avoid straining infrastructure.
Social Circle, a city of roughly 5,500 residents in Georgia, locked the water meter connected to a warehouse that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) recently bought to detain immigrants, according to CBS News. The city notified ICE of the lock after the agency inquired about establishing a water account. The facility is intended to house 7,500 to 10,000 detainees, supported by a staff of 2,000 to 2,500 people, CBS News reported. Local officials raised concerns about infrastructure strain upon learning of ICE's plans. In a statement, the city said: “The lock is there until ICE indicates how water and sewer will be served without exceeding our limited infrastructure capacity.” It added: “Our permit to draw water out of the river is 1 million gallons a day. Our sewer plant can process 660,000 gallons per day and is at capacity. Their BLUF analysis indicates a daily water and sewer need that exceeds these amounts.” The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) asserted the facility will be designed “to not affect the existing infrastructure adversely in any way.” An internal DHS document stated: “The design currently includes on-site mitigation strategies for wastewater treatment. Additional contingencies are in place if required due to non-engineering circumstances,” per CBS News. ICE did not immediately respond to requests for comment from The Daily Wire. This action comes as ICE expands detention capacity nationwide with funding from the One Big Beautiful bill, aiming to increase from roughly 70,000 detainees in January to 92,600.
