New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s administration and Roxbury Township are asking a federal judge to put a planned immigration detention center in the North Jersey community on hold, arguing the facility would negatively affect the suburban enclave.
Sherrill’s Attorney General Jennifer Davenport filed a lawsuit last month alleging the Trump administration’s purchase of a Roxbury warehouse for the detention site violated multiple federal laws. In a filing Tuesday night, Davenport and Roxbury requested emergency relief in the case because they say the U.S. Department of Homeland Security intends to start construction on the facility as early as late May.
“We need swift relief to ensure we can enforce the law and protect New Jerseyans. DHS cannot transform local neighborhoods into detention outposts without considering the impacts on local resources and consulting with the state and local governments,” the New Jersey attorney general said in a statement. “The court needs to step in before the damage is done, not after a lengthy case renders it too late.”
DHS spokesperson Christine Cuttita said the agency is reviewing policies and proposals, but she did not specifically address the status of its Roxbury plans. Markwayne Mullin replaced Kristi Noem as the department’s head after she was fired by President Donald Trump last month.
“As Secretary Mullin said in his confirmation hearing: ‘I will work with the community leaders and make sure that we are delivering for the American people what the President set out,’” Cuttita said in a statement.
The New Jersey officials’ motion references a federal judge in Maryland pausing Homeland Security’s conversion of a Hagerstown warehouse into a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility. A hearing on whether to extend that pause is scheduled for April 15, according to court records.
David Broderick, an attorney representing the No ICE North Jersey Alliance — an activist group opposing the Roxbury facility — noted Davenport’s request makes similar arguments as Maryland’s attorney general does in the Hagerstown case. Both filings accuse the Trump administration of violating the National Environmental Protection Act by failing to conduct an environmental review of the sites before purchasing the properties for the detention sites.
“In fact, the environmental issues in New Jersey are even more salient and important than they are in Maryland,” Broderick said.
The Roxbury warehouse is located in the New Jersey Highlands, an environmentally protected area where 70% of the state gets some of its drinking water.
The Trump administration purchased the 470,000-square-foot warehouse in Roxbury Township in February for roughly $129 million, more than twice its assessed value, according to recent tax records. DHS said it plans to convert the facility to hold up to 1,500 detainees as part of Trump’s wider effort to expand immigration detention around the country.
The lawsuit notes the currently vacant warehouse located on Route 46 consists largely of a single large room with concrete floors and only four toilets. It also says the property lacks adequate water or sewage access to accommodate up to 1,500 detainees and 400 ICE staff, adding that converting the warehouse into a detention center would multiply the gallons of wastewater per day by more than 15 times the current approved limit.
“The Trump administration has ignored state and local officials in pushing its ill-conceived plan forward because it knows the local impacts are indefensible, and this facility will not make the community safer,” Sherrill said in a statement. “We are standing up for New Jerseyans in a bipartisan manner to ensure their drinking water, public safety and pocketbooks are protected.”
Roxbury Township Manager J.J. Murphy and Mayor Shawn Potillo didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. After the lawsuit was filed last month, Potillo said the site was “not appropriate for a facility of this nature, given the significant impacts it would have on our residents, local resources and the surrounding environment.”
