Marana Mayor Faces Heat as Immigration Advocates Demand Halt to New ICE Detention Center

On a Saturday marked by a national day of action against expanding immigration detention centers, more than a dozen protesters gathered outside Marana Mayor Jon Post’s residence to demand an end to plans for a new ICE detention facility in their community.

The detention center is slated to open on a property recently sold by the state of Arizona to Management and Training Corporation (MTC), a private prison company, for $15 million. The sale and plans for the facility have drawn fierce opposition from local activists who highlight the documented abuses and violence endemic to ICE detention centers nationwide.

“We support education, but not at the expense of locking people up in inhumane conditions,” said Jose Ferrum, a protester affiliated with Pima Resists ICE (PRICE). “Our tax dollars should fund schools, not cages where abuse and sexual violence occur behind locked doors.”

The protest coincided with a fundraiser event for the Marana Unified School District (MUSD) taking place on Mayor Post’s property. While the mayor allowed the use of his land for the event, he maintains that the town council and himself have limited legal options to prevent the detention center’s opening without triggering costly litigation.

“We have given the town council and the mayor several tools that they can use to stop the opening of this detention center,” said Mary Romer, a PRICE organizer. “But to date, they have not taken action. That’s why we brought the protest to the mayor’s doorstep.”

Marana officials have repeatedly stated their hands are tied, but activists remain skeptical, arguing the council’s inaction effectively enables the expansion of a for-profit detention system that profits from human suffering.

The fundraiser hosted by Mayor Post was clarified by MUSD officials as a centennial celebration benefiting the 2340 Foundation, which provides scholarships to local students—not a direct school funding event as some protesters initially believed.

Despite this, community members like Kathryn Mikronis, MUSD board president, expressed solidarity with the protesters’ core message: “I do not want an ICE detention center in my backyard. I don’t want one near my high school or in my community.”

This confrontation underscores the growing tension between local governments, community activists, and federal immigration enforcement policies. As private prison companies expand their footprint through state property sales, communities across the country are grappling with the human costs of mass detention and the political will—or lack thereof—to resist it.