El Paso County Sues ICE Over Secret Plans for 8,500-Bed Detention Center

El Paso County is taking the federal government to court over what local leaders are calling a pattern of deliberate secrecy around plans to build one of the largest immigration detention centers in the country.

The lawsuit, approved by the County Commissioners Court, targets U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for refusing to disclose basic information about a facility designed to hold up to 8,500 people in Socorro, Texas. Despite spending more than $122 million to acquire property in January and awarding a $30 million no-bid design contract, ICE has stonewalled requests for documents about the project's impact on water supplies, emergency services, and local infrastructure.

"Given the vast scale of this facility, it could place enormous demands on natural resources, emergency services, public health systems, and local infrastructure," said El Paso County Attorney Christina Sanchez. "Transparency is essential to ensure that both the public and local governmental entities fully understand what is happening in the community."

ICE Ignored Federal Transparency Law

The county filed a Freedom of Information Act request in February seeking records related to the facility's planning, funding, and environmental impact. FOIA requires federal agencies to respond within 20 days. ICE blew past that deadline without explanation.

"The Freedom of Information Act requires federal agencies to respond within set time limits and ICE has missed every statutory deadline, leaving the County no choice but to seek judicial intervention," Sanchez said.

The lawsuit asks a federal court to declare ICE's silence unlawful and compel immediate disclosure of all non-exempt records. County officials say they have no choice but to force compliance through litigation.

Warehouses, Not Housing

Local officials say the properties ICE acquired were zoned and built as warehouses -- not facilities designed to house thousands of human beings.

"The Lower Valley Water District, El Paso Water, the Emergency Services District #2 -- all of these entities -- have said that these facilities were meant to be warehouses; they were not intended to house people, much less 8,500," said County Commissioner Iliana Holguin, who represents the affected area.

Holguin said the federal government never consulted local leaders before moving forward with the project. "If the federal government had talked to us from the start, we could have discussed these issues early and perhaps convinced them that housing 8,500 people in three warehouses was not a good idea; unfortunately, that didn't happen, and here we are."

County Judge Ricardo Samaniego echoed those concerns, noting the facility would be one of the largest detention centers in the nation. "You're looking at one of the largest detention centers in the country, intended for about 10,000 people, which involves water, toilets, and all kinds of capacity issues. You can't accommodate that many people without showing capacity and staffing requirements."

Local Government Fights Back

The City of Socorro has already enacted a moratorium on detention facilities within its city limits, with help from the County Attorney's Office. County officials say they will continue fighting to prevent the facility from opening.

"We will continue doing everything in our power to stop this facility from opening in El Paso County -- this is the main goal of the lawsuit," Holguin said.

Judge Samaniego warned that the administration might simply ignore local input and proceed regardless of legal challenges. "There is always concern that this administration might ignore rules and act regardless of our input, which makes it clear they don't respect due process -- something so vital."

He compared the situation to a business trying to operate without disclosing environmental or capacity impacts. "Imagine a business planning to operate without fully disclosing environmental or capacity impacts; you wouldn't expect that, and it's concerning that they might proceed independently of our input."

County officials acknowledge the lawsuit will be a slow process, but say they have no alternative. "We've been doing everything possible to gather as much information as we can to share with the public because the federal government has not been forthcoming," Holguin said.

The county's legal challenge comes amid broader concerns about conditions and oversight at ICE detention facilities nationwide. By refusing to provide basic information about a facility of this scale, ICE is making it impossible for local governments to plan for the impact on their communities -- or to protect residents from potential harm.

"We're allowing a bad situation to happen and our community doesn't just step away from something like that," Judge Samaniego said. "We feel completely obligated to be the line in the sand."