Activists plan rally over revived Roxbury ICE detention plan

State attorneys have questioned whether a reported $31.8 million contract violates a court order restricting work at the proposed detention center.

Activists are planning to protest the Department of Homeland Security’s decision to move forward with converting a massive warehouse in Roxbury into a detention center.

The No ICE in North Jersey Alliance, also known as Project NINJA, announced Monday that the group will hold a rally at the Rockaway Mall at noon on Saturday, Nov. 14, to oppose the Trump administration’s plans for the 470,000-square-foot warehouse on Route 46. The group also scheduled a call for Nov. 10 to educate residents about the proposal.

“Enough is enough,” said Birdie Green, co-founder of Project NINJA, in a statement. “When will this rogue agency face consequences? How far past our checks and balances will they be allowed to go before they are stopped? This needs to end now.”

The announcement comes three days after New Jersey attorneys told a federal judge that the Department of Homeland Security had decided to pursue the detention center after months of saying it had made no decision.

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The disclosure came after a Nov. 6 report that the Department of Homeland Security had entered into a $31.8 million contract with a private company to convert the warehouse into an immigration detention center.

After learning of the contract, attorneys for New Jersey and Roxbury contacted lawyers for the Department of Homeland Security. In a four-page status report filed in U.S. District Court, a lawyer acknowledged for the first time that the department had decided to pursue the project.

The lawyer could not confirm whether the contract had been signed but subsequently told the state’s attorneys that money had been set aside for maintenance, design work and an environmental review under the National Environmental Policy Act. The state has requested a copy of the contract to determine whether the department’s description of the agreement is accurate.

This development raises questions about whether the Department of Homeland Security is complying with a May 12 court order barring most work to convert the warehouse into a detention center until an environmental assessment is completed and the state has an opportunity to challenge its findings, Deputy Solicitor General Shankar Duraiswamy wrote in the filing.

“If DHS has in fact entered into a contract to convert the Roxbury site into a detention center, that raises significant concerns about DHS’s compliance with the stipulated order, which generally bars DHS from undertaking activities at the warehouse site for purposes of converting it into a detention center,” Duraiswamy wrote.

The filing also details a series of contradictory statements by Department of Homeland Security officials about plans for the property.

After the May court order, officials initially told the court the agency had decided against pursuing a detention center in Roxbury. Two weeks later, the agency reversed that position. Officials said no decision had been made yet.

In subsequent court filings and communications with the plaintiffs, officials continued to maintain that no decision had been made and there was no timetable for reaching one.

The state and Roxbury may ask the court to intervene if additional information shows that the Department of Homeland Security has violated the order, according to the Nov. 6 filing.

A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson declined to comment Monday.

The agency purchased the warehouse in February for $129.3 million, intending to convert it into a processing center for immigrants who are arrested during President Donald Trump’s mass deportation raids.

Planning documents indicated that the facility could hold as many as 1,500 people, though officials later reduced the proposed capacity to fewer than 550 people.

Roxbury Township joined a state lawsuit seeking to block the project. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in March, accused U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials of ignoring laws that require environmental reviews and consultations with state and local governments before moving ahead with plans.

Under the May consent order, ICE agreed to suspend most work at the warehouse while it conducted the environmental study. Until the review is complete, the agency is permitted to perform only basic maintenance and security work.

But ICE officials later acknowledged that agents from its Newark Enforcement and Removal Operations Field Office brought nine undocumented immigrants to the warehouse following a September raid in Dover.

Four days later, agents from the same office used the parking lot to stage enforcement operations and process five immigrants arrested in Dover and Ledgewood.

The activity stopped only after the field office director instructed managers and supervisors to inform agents that the property could not be used for immigration enforcement, according to an email from ICE’s congressional liaison to Democratic Rep. Analilia Mejia.

The Nov. 6 court filing confirms that DHS has since told the state and Roxbury that it instructed ICE personnel to stop using the warehouse for enforcement operations involving the apprehension and processing of detainees.

The state’s attorneys raised concerns about the agency’s compliance with the court order, citing both the reported conversion contract and the earlier use of the property for immigration enforcement.

Officials at the attorney general’s office said they are investigating the September incidents.

“They appear to be using the warehouse as a base of operations to stage raids throughout Northern and Central New Jersey, and possibly for other purposes,” said David Broderick, a legal adviser to Project NINJA. “Once again, ICE is demonstrating its utter contempt for the rule of law.”