New Jersey and ICE Reach Temporary Deal to Pause Work at Proposed Roxbury Detention Warehouse
The agreement halts detention conversion activity while federal officials complete additional environmental review, avoiding a scheduled injunction hearing in federal court.
Federal immigration officials and the State of New Jersey reached a temporary agreement Tuesday that pauses major conversion work at a proposed ICE detention warehouse in Roxbury while the government completes additional environmental review, avoiding a scheduled federal court hearing over the project.
The agreement, filed jointly in federal court, stays consideration of New Jersey’s request for a preliminary injunction until Immigration and Customs Enforcement completes a final Environmental Assessment, or EA, examining the proposed conversion of a vacant industrial warehouse into an immigration detention facility.
Under the stipulation, ICE agreed not to proceed with detention conversion work while the review is underway, aside from limited security and maintenance activity. Permitted work includes temporary fencing, security cameras and lighting, alarm systems, plumbing and fire safety testing, custodial services, lawn maintenance and repairs necessary to keep the building secure and weatherproof. The agreement also prohibits ground disturbance and restricts work within a conservation easement area without state approval.
The case concerns a warehouse at 1879 Route 46 in Morris County that the federal government purchased earlier this year as part of a broader effort to rapidly expand immigration detention capacity through large warehouse acquisitions around the country. New Jersey and the Township of Roxbury sued ICE and the Department of Homeland Security in March, arguing that the federal government moved forward with plans for the detention center without first conducting legally required environmental review under the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA, and without required consultation with state and local entities.
The dispute is one of the most politically unusual fights over ICE’s warehouse detention strategy. Roxbury’s Republican local leadership publicly opposed the project despite broadly supporting the Trump administration’s immigration policies, arguing that the detention facility was incompatible with the township’s infrastructure, environmental protections and long-term development plans.
Town officials and state lawyers had increasingly pressed the court in recent weeks over what they described as shifting and contradictory government accounts of how quickly ICE intended to begin renovation work at the property. In filings last week, New Jersey argued that DHS officials had alternately described the project as limited maintenance activity and as active interior preparation work involving demolition and infrastructure changes.
The agreement filed Tuesday effectively adopts many of the limits plaintiffs had sought before the scheduled injunction hearing.
David Broderick, a volunteer with Project NINJA, a New Jersey-based advocacy group opposing the detention project, said the agreement amounted to a recognition by DHS that additional environmental review would be required before substantive conversion work could proceed.
“They have belatedly agreed to follow the requirements of NEPA and not perform any substantive work to convert the warehouse unless and until they perform the required Environmental Assessment,” Mr. Broderick said in a statement.
He added that local groups intended to closely monitor activity at the site for compliance with the agreement.
The filing also formalizes a position the federal government had already previewed in earlier court papers. In an April declaration submitted in opposition to New Jersey’s injunction request, ICE official Andrew J. DeGregorio stated that the agency intended to conduct “further NEPA analysis” before proceeding with construction activities related to detention operations, including preparation of an Environmental Assessment.
The stipulation does not resolve the underlying lawsuit. Instead, it temporarily pauses the dispute while the environmental review proceeds.
Once ICE issues a final Environmental Assessment and a formal agency decision relying on it, the parties must submit a joint status report proposing the next phase of litigation. The agreement also preserves New Jersey’s ability to renew its request for a preliminary injunction after the environmental review is completed.
The agreement arrives weeks after a federal judge in Maryland granted a preliminary injunction halting conversion work at a planned ICE detention warehouse in Williamsport, finding that the federal government likely failed to comply with NEPA before moving forward with the project. That ruling has become a central reference point in similar warehouse challenges now pending in New Jersey, Michigan and Arizona.
The case in Roxbury is likely to resume once ICE completes the environmental review process, which could determine whether the agency can proceed with converting the warehouse into a detention facility without undertaking a broader environmental impact study.
Considering the flimsiness of the federal government’s legal position as displayed in the April 15th Maryland hearing, it’s doubtful that they have any capacity to conduct a satisfactory environmental review. Ideally this delay will run out the clock.
Excellent No surrender