Debate over a proposed ICE detention facility has died down but not gone away

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Debate surged in March over a proposed immigration detention center in Salt Lake City.
Now things have quieted with Utah officials awaiting additional information from federal authorities.
Nevertheless, demonstrations continue each Wednesday and Friday by a handful of foes opposed to the plans.

SALT LAKE CITY — After a surge of heated debate in March over federal plans to build an immigrant detention center in Salt Lake City, much of the public clamoring has died down, though not all of it.

Utah and Salt Lake City officials say they are awaiting additional details and information from federal authorities on the plans.

Utah officials have reached out to the administration of President Donald Trump "to try to get more information about what they're really planning to do," Gov. Spencer Cox said at a press conference Thursday. "I don't have anything yet, but I hope to have more to report soon as we get to have those conversations."

Cox is a supporter of the plans, a key element in the crackdown on illegal immigration of the administration of President Donald Trump.

Similarly, a rep from the office of Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall this week reported no new developments. Mendenhall opposes the proposal in Salt Lake City, which calls for a facility that could house up to 10,000 immigrant detainees.

Either way, foes of the plans for the facility in an industrial area west of Salt Lake City International Airport at 6020 W. 300 South haven't stopped speaking out. Small contingents continue to show up at the site each Wednesday and Saturday as shows of protest against the plans. Immigration and Customs Enforcement critics also show up each Friday afternoon outside ICE's local field office at 2975 Decker Lake Drive in West Valley City.

TJ Young, who's been involved in the demonstrations against the detention center proposal, has been showing up to the Wednesday warehouse demonstrations, as they're known. She says the gatherings have been drawing around 12-25 people, even if Markwayne Mullin, the new head of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, has put a pause on the purchases of warehouses around the country meant to house immigrant detainees.

The new DHS administration is scrutinizing the various land deals around the country for new detention centers. Young, though, has her doubts that the Salt Lake City proposal is on the scrap heap. "I have heard it is not paused, but just being audited," she said.

The photo shows tongue-in-cheek postcards created by critics of the proposed immigration detention center in Salt Lake City. Debate on the issue surged in March but has quieted, though foes still show up at twice-weekly demonstrations at the proposed site. (Photo: TJ Young)

At the same time, U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Connecticut, sent letters to the leaders of 20 locales around the country where new detention centers are contemplated, including Mendenhall, cautioning against their development. He's the ranking member of the Senate Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee and a foe of the plans, worried in part that converted warehouses would be inadequate as detention facilities.

"Democrats oppose the warehousing of humans in former office spaces and will make defunding these facilities a major priority when we take back control of Congress," he said in the April 21 letter. He said the potential for "a serious humanitarian catastrophe is very real" inside the proposed facilities.

While supporters of more detention centers view them as key in keeping pace with increasing arrests of immigrants in the country illegally by ICE officials, many foes view them as akin to internment camps used by the U.S. government during World War II to house Japanese American citizens. Tongue-in-cheek postcards created by critics of the plans to be sent with handwritten messages by the foes to Cox play on Utah's history as home to Topaz, one of those internment camps.

"Greetings from Utah, home of Topaz internment camp 1942 — and the new ICE detention center 2026," they read. "Wish you were here!"

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.