NJ may seek court action over Roxbury ICE activity
Officials are investigating reports that the warehouse is being used to hold immigrants. Federal authorities say they have not decided how they will use the site.
New Jersey officials are investigating reports that federal immigration authorities have used a Roxbury warehouse to hold immigrants and will ask a federal judge to intervene if they determine the activity violated a court order restricting use of the property.
The disclosure came in a joint status report filed Sept. 15 in U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, where New Jersey and Roxbury Township officials sued the federal government in March over plans to turn a warehouse on Route 46 into an immigration detention center.
Attorneys for New Jersey, Roxbury and the federal government filed the status report Tuesday to update U.S. District Judge Jamel Semper on the case. Attorneys for New Jersey and Roxbury said in the report that officials recently learned of reports that the warehouse had been used in connection with immigration enforcement and were investigating whether that activity violated an earlier court order.
“If they determine that Defendants have not complied with the stipulated order, Plaintiffs will seek appropriate relief from the Court,” state lawyers wrote in the filing.
The status report also says federal officials have not decided whether to turn the warehouse into an immigration detention center, despite telling the court in June that they had abandoned the project and planned to sell the property.
“Defendants continue to assess whether to proceed with plans to convert the Roxbury Warehouse into a detention facility,” lawyers for the Trump administration wrote in the Sept. 15 report. “At present, there is no timeline for reaching that decision.”
That position is different from what attorneys for the parties told the same federal court on June 29.
“Defendants no longer intend to convert the Roxbury Warehouse into an immigration detention facility and intend to sell the warehouse,” they wrote in a June filing.
But federal officials later reconsidered. Justice Department attorneys notified the court July 10 that the Department of Homeland Security was again weighing whether to convert the warehouse into a detention center. A July 17 status report said federal officials were still assessing whether to proceed and had no timeline for making a decision.
Two months later, federal officials still have not decided what to do with the warehouse.
The latest filing comes after activists raised concerns that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials were already using the warehouse as a temporary holding and transfer site for immigrants arrested nearby.
Project NINJA, short for No ICE North Jersey Alliance, asked New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport on Monday to investigate what the group said was evidence that ICE officials had used the warehouse to hold immigrants temporarily.
The group pointed to the experience of a man arrested by ICE officials during an enforcement operation in Dover on Sept. 4. The man told his family he had been taken to a “jail or prison” before being transferred to an immigration detention center in Elizabeth, according to Project NINJA.
Activists collected videos of federal agents detaining immigrants in the Dover area and of vehicles with the same license plates later entering and leaving the warehouse.
As part of a May agreement, federal officials agreed not to take steps to convert the Roxbury warehouse into a detention center, other than certain security and maintenance work, until they complete an environmental assessment.
Federal officials can install temporary fencing, security cameras, lighting and signs; change locks; maintain heating, cooling and electrical systems; test plumbing; maintain fire protection systems; clean the building and remove garbage; maintain the grounds; and perform other limited work needed to keep the property secure.
The agreement restricts activities intended to convert the property into a detention center, except for the specified security and maintenance work.
On Tuesday, the Department of Homeland Security did not answer The Vindicator’s question about whether the warehouse is being used to hold immigrants, instead citing the pending lawsuit.
“Due to ongoing litigation, DHS has no further comment at this time,” a spokesperson wrote.
Semper has ordered lawyers for both sides to file their next status report by Nov. 16.
Krystal Knapp is the founder, executive director, and publisher of The Jersey Vindicator and the founder of Planet Princeton. She has more than two decades of experience reporting in New Jersey, including 10 years at The Trenton Times, where she was the newsroom’s public records and computer-assisted reporting expert. Her work has been recognized by the New Jersey Press Association and the Center for Cooperative Media. You can reach her at Krystal AT jerseyvindicator.org.