Salt Lake immigration detention center plans spark opposition from mayors; others quiet

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall said she plans to do what she can to halt plans for a new immigration detention facility in the city.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement paid $145.44 million for a land parcel where the facility is expected to be built.
While many have expressed opposition to the plans, others remain quiet as they seemingly seek more details.

SALT LAKE CITY — As word spreads of plans for an immigration detention facility on the west side of Salt Lake City, many seem to be scrambling to get more details.

It sparked loud opposition from some on Thursday, though, and Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall — one of the few officials to publicly address the issue on Friday — is adamant that she'll do what she can to stall the plans.

"Let me be clear. A detention center does not belong in our capital city — full stop," she said in a statement Friday, a day after news broke publicly about the planned facility in an industrial area west of Salt Lake City International Airport. "The mass detention of people inside a warehouse is inhumane and is contradictory to the function, values and desires of Salt Lakers, and I will use every tool at the city's disposal to stop it."

She said she's directed the city's legal experts to investigate "possible legal interventions" as city officials also study the sort of infrastructure that a detention center in the industrial area would require.

The 833,000-square-foot building, a warehouse, according to Salt Lake County Mayor Jenny Wilson, sits at 6020 W. 300 South.

Use of the structure to hold immigrants detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement is "wholly outside the scope of our available resources and zoning allowances," Mendenhall said. Wilson, along with other Democratic Party organizations, expressed strong opposition to the plans in statements on Thursday.

News of the facility parallels the ongoing crackdown on illegal immigration around the country spearheaded by President Donald Trump and his administration.

Many Republican leaders KSL reached out to didn't respond to queries seeking comment, perhaps as they try to get more information. But Rep. Matt MacPherson, R-West Valley City, chimed in, indicating a measure of support for the plans.

"I have only seen some of the coverage myself while out of town, haven't had any in-depth conversations about it yet. But I do believe we currently have no (immigration) detention space, other than what space we share with several states in Nevada. And with the lack of jail/prison capacity already, this is likely a great boost to public safety," MacPherson said.

While some county jails in Utah hold detained immigrants for ICE on a limited basis, the nearest full-fledged immigrant detention centers to Utah are in Arizona, Nevada and Colorado.

U.S. Sen. Mike Lee, a Republican, said he's seeking more details on the plans, but broadly speaking, lauded the work of ICE.

"I am continuing to track this announcement and get additional details about how this facility will affect the community," Lee said. "I am grateful for the Department of Homeland Security and the courageous Utahns working with ICE who keep our families safe and our country secure."

ICE or Department of Homeland Security officials didn't immediately respond to KSL queries seeking comment, but a DHS statement issued to KUTV and KSTU confirmed that ICE plans to build a detention center in Salt Lake City. Rumors swirled last January that an ICE detention center was in the works at a different nearby site in the industrial area, though the owner of the site later said it wouldn't sell the property to the federal agency after all.

Likewise, many others KSL reached out to on Friday, including Gov. Spencer Cox, offered no immediate comment. The $145.44 million sale of the 24.9-acre parcel and warehouse to Immigration and Customs Enforcement was finalized Wednesday, and word didn't publicly start seeping out until Thursday afternoon.

Utah Sen. Luz Escamilla, D-Salt Lake City, spoke to KSL Newsradio on Friday, saying she had no inkling the proposal was afoot and that she didn't think other officials in Utah were aware of the plans, either. Her district includes the area where the detention center would take shape.

"There's a lot of concerns, I mean, just on the operation itself and how it came about, having not (consulted) with city, local and state leaders," she said. "It's irresponsible."

Like Mendenall, Escamilla questioned whether the area, though home to the 3,600-bed Utah State Correctional Facility, has the infrastructure a detention center would require. Like some other Democratic officials who blasted the plans Thursday when news first emerged, she also questioned the site for the facility, on the west side of Salt Lake City, home to an ethnically and racially diverse population and many immigrants.

"It's also in the heart of the most diverse area in the state of Utah, so the chilling effect is going to be real," she said.

The news comes as the Trump administration pursues a multi-pronged effort to stem the illegal entry of immigrants and detain and deport those in the country illegally. In the federal budget plan approved last year, dubbed the Big Beautiful Bill, $45 billion is earmarked to build new immigration detention centers in the coming four years around the country, according to the American Immigration Council.

"The overwhelming majority of the funding for ICE detention will likely go to private companies contracted to build and run detention facilities," an immigration council report on the issue said.

Contributing: Daniel Woodruff

The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.