In a Tennessee Town, ICE Is Eyeing a Detention Complex Bigger Than Almost Anything in American History
Twice the size of the largest detention facility ICE has already purchased, the complex has been empty since it opened. It may not stay that way.
Updated Feb. 24, 2026, 7:04 p.m. E.T.
Following the publication of this article, Senator Marsha Blackburn, Republican of Tennessee, said on Tuesday that the Department of Homeland Security will not move forward with a proposed detention facility in Lebanon, Tenn.
Writing on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, Ms. Blackburn said the agency had confirmed it would no longer pursue the site in Wilson County. Ms. Blackburn also praised the commitment of Kristi Noem, the secretary of homeland security, to finding a location for a new center intended to “apprehend, detain, and deport illegal aliens.”
The warehouses sit just off Highway 109 South, a short drive from Wilson Central High School, a daycare and two churches. Built on 248 acres of reshaped Tennessee hill country, they were conceived as distribution centers. Now the federal government wants to fill them with more people than almost any detention center in U.S. history.
The Department of Homeland Security is conducting due diligence on Earhart Industrial Park, a two-building complex at 100–155 Cedar Creek Lane, according to Wilson County Mayor Randall Hutto, who said he spoke directly with senior department counsel. The two buildings together exceed two million square feet. Mayor Hutto put the potential detainee population at 14,000 to 16,000 — which would make it the largest immigration detention facility in modern American history — exceeded in scale only by the Japanese American internment camp at Tule Lake Segregation Center in California during World War II.
For context: the largest warehouse ICE has purchased in its current buying spree, a facility in Social Circle, Ga., is 1,013,902 square feet and is planned for 8,500 detainees. Earhart is twice that size.
“The size and scope raise serious safety concerns,” Mr. Hutto wrote in a statement posted Feb. 20. “What is being considered is a mega center — the largest of its kind in the United States.”
Another Community Left in the Dark
Elected officials learned about the proposal the same way the public did: from a journalist. Tennessee State Sen. Mark Pody initially cast doubt on reports, suggesting the agency may have meant Lebanon County, Pa. ICE later acknowledged the original statement had gone out without proper authorization.
Lebanon Mayor Rick Bell noted that ICE had not contacted city utilities or engineering — a significant omission for a facility that, at capacity, would rank among Tennessee’s ten largest population centers.
House Majority Whip Clark Boyd, a Republican whose district includes Lebanon, said his hometown was “not the right place for this type of facility” and said he was working with local mayors and Sen. Marsha Blackburn to block it.
Why These Buildings?
Only three warehouses in Lebanon meet the minimum square footage required to hold the stated detainee population, according to Project Salt Box’s analysis of commercial real estate listings. This publication contacted the owners of all three. Two confirmed they had received no inquiry from ICE or DHS. The third — Earhart Industrial Park — did not respond.
That threshold is derived from ICE’s own past acquisitions: in Social Circle, a 1,013,902 square foot warehouse is planned to accommodate 8,500 detainees.
Earhart’s two buildings — 1,151,585 square feet and 863,573 square feet respectively, both with 40-foot clear heights — were delivered in late 2024 by developer Griffin Partners of Houston and have remained unleased. At that ratio, Earhart’s larger building alone clears the federal government’s target.
A Mega Detention Center in the Making
Lebanon would be one major detention node in a much larger federal strategy. Documents shared with Social Circle officials describe a plan to collapse roughly 300 existing detention facilities into approximately 34 mega-centers, with the network operational by the end of fiscal year 2026 — part of what DHS has described as a $38.3 billion detention and deportation program.
The pattern is consistent — communities learn of acquisitions through press reports, not government notice.
“No financial gain outweighs the safety, stability, and well-being of our community,” Mayor Hutto wrote. “Our environment, our quality of life, and the people we serve every day are invaluable.”
At least 20 communities are being targeted for massive ICE detention centers — warehouses converted into makes-shift prisons for migrants, many of whom have committed no crime and may never receive due process before being locked inside. Rather than pursue real public safety solutions, Trump, Stephen Miller, and Kristi Noem have fueled a fear-based campaign that uses immigration as a cover for sweeping, racialized deportation. Between aggressive raids and expulsions to countries people have never even seen, we are living through a homegrown humanitarian crisis.
Thank you for telling the world about what happened here in Lebanon. While we applaud Blackburn for stepping up, I don’t trust her. If she becomes Governor, I believe she will let Miller and Trump put a mega detention center anywhere they want. We will keep fighting this.