- Salt Lake City leaders are uncertain about the Department of Homeland Security's pause on warehouse purchases.
- The proposed ICE mega center faces opposition from city officials and residents.
- Gov. Spencer Cox supports the facility, citing a need for local ICE presence.
SALT LAKE CITY — Leaders of Utah's capital city say they're unsure if the Department of Homeland Security's decision to pause the purchase of new warehouses has any effect on a proposed Immigration and Customs Enforcement "mega center" in the city.
"We don't have additional information at this time, but we are inquiring with (the department) and ICE officials to learn if this pause will have any impact on the proposed facility in Salt Lake City," said Andrew Wittenberg, a spokesman for Salt Lake City's Mayor's Office, in a statement to KSL on Wednesday.
The pause, which the Associated Press reported early Wednesday, comes as Homeland Security officials review contracts signed under former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. She was ousted from her position last month shortly before ICE finalized a $145.44 million deal to acquire a 833,000-square-foot warehouse within Salt Lake City's Northwest Quadrant.
Gov. Spencer Cox noted on March 19 that the project was "in a holding pattern" while former Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin took over the department. ICE leaders told Salt Lake officials in a meeting last week that they were "waiting for a due diligence report" on the recent purchase, Mayor Erin Mendenhall said on Monday.
Salt Lake City and Utah leaders have been divided on the proposed ICE facility, which would house 7,500 to 10,000 detainees, since the contract was made public.
Cox supports the proposed facility, saying it's long overdue since the nearest ICE facility is in Las Vegas. He told reporters last month that the country is "picking up the pieces" from an influx of immigrants, which he blamed on former President Joe Biden.
"We've tried to work with different presidents to get something done. We knew that they were looking at Utah," he added. "It's something we need to get right. We've reached out to the administration to let them know that we want to work with them on whatever that looks like."
Salt Lake City, however, has been openly critical of the plan.
"Let me be clear. A detention center does not belong in our capital city — full stop," Mendenhall said, after the warehouse purchase was finalized, calling the use of a warehouse as a mass detention center "inhumane," and "contradictory to the function, values and desires of Salt Lakers."
Salt Lake City Councilwoman Eva Lopez Chavez also called the facility "deeply alarming." A handful of protests have taken place in Salt Lake City since the announcement.
Mendenhall later sent a letter to ICE leaders, where she noted that the city had not been consulted about the plan, even though the facility would likely impact multiple city resources. That prompted her meeting with ICE last week.
City leaders also quickly introduced and adopted an emergency water ordinance last week, which caps any new nonresidential development at 200,000 gallons of potable water per day for the next six months while a permanent measure is added to the code.
Although city leaders insisted it was tied to drought measures, Mendenhall pointed out that the proposed ICE facility would likely consume 1 million to 2 million gallons of water every day. Thus, the measure could complicate ICE's implementation of a warehouse.
Department of Homeland Security officials said this week that it wants to work with community leaders on issues, following comments Mullin made in his confirmation hearing.
"I will work with the community leaders and make sure that we are delivering for the American people what the president set out," Mullin said in the hearing. "We want to work with community leaders. We want to be good partners."
