Republican Senator Roger Wicker is urging the Department of Homeland Security to take its plans for a massive immigration detention center elsewhere as he slaps down having the facility in his state.
The powerful Mississippi lawmaker wrote a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Tuesday rejecting the plan to buy a warehouse to convert it to hold immigrants in the deep red state.
It comes as Democrats have been deeply critical of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity across the country.
But as DHS moves forward with plans to carry out President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, it turns out Republicans are not too keen on how the effort, in reality, will impact their states.
Wicker claimed that he opposes the plan to buy a warehouse and convert it to an immigration detention center in Byhalia, Mississippi, due to economic, logistical and constituent concerns.
“While I support the enforcement of immigration law. I write to express my opposition to this acquisition and the proposed detention center,” he wrote in his letter.
The GOP senator, who voted for the ICE money in Trump’s so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act and annual DHS funding, claimed many Mississippians have raised issues with putting detention centers in their communities.
He wrote that they have concerns about public safety, medical capacity, and the economic impacts this center would impose on their communities.
Wicker also noted that the proposed location for the detention center posed technical challenges.
“Detention facilities impose substantial and specialized infrastructure demands--including transportation access, water, sewer and energy costs, staffing, medical care, and emergency services,” he wrote.
Wicker noted that an ICE facility would have the capacity for 8,500 beds and the current medical and other services in Byhalia are “insufficient to support such a large detainee population.”
“Establishing a detention center at this site would place significant strain on local resources,” he argued.
Meanwhile, the GOP lawmaker indicated that the location had already been designated for “economic development purposes.”
“Converting this industrial asset into an ICE detention center forecloses economic growth opportunities and replaces them with a use that does not generate comparable economic returns or community benefits,” he complained.
He strongly urged ICE to reconsider its acquisition and plans for the detention center in Byhalia.
“I look forward to your prompt response and request that you keep me informed of this acquisition and any future ICE contracting proposals affecting the state of Mississippi,” he concluded.
The Daily Beast asked DHS for comment in response to the senator’s letter.
Last week, The Washington Post reported that DHS plans to buy warehouses for a mass detention network had rattled locals.
The report did not specifically mention a facility in Mississippi but noted that the administration had moved to acquire buildings in at least eight states.
Internal ICE documents obtained by The Post in December indicated the administration’s draft proposal was to convert warehouses to hold more than 80,000 immigrant detainees at any given time. However, it did not identify a planned warehouse in Mississippi.
