New Jersey Sues to Block Roxbury ICE Detention Facility

New Jersey officials and Roxbury Township leaders filed a federal lawsuit on Friday against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security, seeking to block the conversion of a large warehouse in Roxbury into an immigration detention facility capable of holding up to 1,500 detainees.

The bipartisan action, announced by Governor Mikie Sherrill and Attorney General Jennifer Davenport at a press conference in Newark, targets a 470,000-square-foot vacant property on Route 46 in Morris County. DHS purchased the site in February for approximately $129 million and has begun soliciting construction bids, according to court documents. The lawsuit argues that the agencies violated multiple federal laws by proceeding without consulting state and local officials, conducting environmental reviews or evaluating alternative locations.

Prosecutors claim the warehouse, originally a logistics center, is unsuitable for human detention. It currently features only four toilets and lacks adequate water and sewage systems to support 1,500 detainees and hundreds of staff members. Expanding operations could increase daily wastewater output by more than 15 times the...