Utah lawyers mull lawsuit to halt Salt Lake City immigrant detention center plans

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Jim McConkie is helping prepare potential legal action to halt plans for a proposed immigrant detention center in Salt Lake City.
Federal authorities purchased a vacant warehouse earlier this year for $145.44 million for conversion into a facility that could house up to 10,000 detainees.
McConkie worries about the possible health risks and environmental impact of a detention center.

SALT LAKE CITY — A lawyer who has advocated for the refugee and immigrant communities in Utah is laying the groundwork for possible legal action targeting a proposed federal immigration detention center in Salt Lake City.

Jim McConkie, who's been involved in numerous legal efforts on behalf of refugees and immigrants, said he and other lawyers at Parker & McConkie are researching efforts in other U.S. cities aimed at stopping detention center proposals. A formal announcement outlining the lawsuit here could be coming in early June.

"We're right now kind of in the research preparation stages of looking at the various potential causes of action," McConkie said this week. The aim would be to "delay or completely nix the further development of the detention center."

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, purchased an empty warehouse at 6020 W. 300 South in Salt Lake City for $145.44 million earlier this year for conversion into an immigrant detention center, part of President Donald Trump's crackdown on illegal immigration. ICE officials told Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall the facility would be designed to hold 7,500 to 10,000 people and serve as one of handful of "mega centers" around the country.

The plans, focus of further review by federal officials like detention center proposals at other cities given the recent change in leadership at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, have prompted mixed sentiments. McConkie, for his part, is a foe.

"This would be by far the largest detention center in the United States. It would make what happened with Topaz like kids' stuff," he said. Such a development "would be a real black mark" for the city and Utah.

Utah lawyer Jim McConkie, right, is investigating a possible lawsuit to halt the federal proposal to build an immigrant detention center in Salt Lake City. He's pictured March 31 in Salt Lake City. (Photo: Tess Crowley, Deseret News)

Topaz was an internment camp near Delta used during World War II, where Japanese Americans were relocated.

What's more, McConkie said such a large facility could lead to health issues, potentially speeding the spread of diseases, and he questioned whether it would be capable of providing proper medical care to detainees. Water use at such a large detention center could adversely impact flows to the Great Salt Lake, resulting in larger expanses of exposed lake bed and release of more harmful substances into the air.

Such issues, he said, could serve as the basis for a lawsuit challenging the ICE plans. McConkie is also involved in efforts to sue federal immigration officials for $56 million on behalf of a Venezuelan man headed to Utah in 2024 but sent instead by U.S. authorities to a notorious Salvadoran prison, another facet of Trump's crackdown on illegal immigration.

U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials are in the midst of deciding which of the various immigration detention center proposals around the country to pursue, McConkie said. With a lawsuit, he went on, he'd hope to convey that "they're going to be tied up in litigation" if they move forward with the Utah plans, discouraging the initiative here.

As part of the effort, McConkie said he and others involved are forming a nonprofit group that would serve as the vehicle for the lawsuit.

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