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A joint status report filed in a legal battle between New Jersey officials and the Department of Homeland Security says federal officials "continue to assess whether to proceed" with plans to convert a Roxbury warehouse into an immigration detention facility, but "there is no timeline" to reach that decision.
The report, filed on July 17, appears to pump the brakes on an announcement last week by Homeland Security that it once again intends to move forward with plans revealed late last year to retrofit the 474,000-square-foot Route 46 facility as a potential Immigration and Customs Enforcement site.
That reversal came only a few weeks after the department told the court on June 29 that it would no longer pursue the warehouse conversion, a development many residents and local officials viewed as a major victory in their ongoing fight against the proposal.
So did Gov. Mikie Sherrill, who said, "Converting a warehouse for packages into a detention center for thousands of people would not only be inhumane but also have devastating local and environmental impacts — and it would not make New Jersey any safer. That’s why we took the department to court and forced the Trump administration to abandon its plans."
But after last week's DHS reversal, Sherrill and other officials said their lawsuit to prevent the warehouse conversion was still active and would continue through the courts.
"This is obviously deeply disappointing news for the residents of Roxbury Township, who have demonstrated remarkable patience and resilience throughout this process," Roxbury Mayor Shawn Potillo said. "While we do not know exactly what prompted the Department of Homeland Security to reconsider its previous position, we are confident that this decision was not the result of any action, request, or change in the position of Roxbury Township."
Faced with fierce local opposition and protests at its meetings since the warehouse proposal first surfaced in December, the all-Republican Roxbury Township Council unanimously passed a resolution in January opposing the plan.
Roxbury later joined New Jersey in filing a lawsuit on March 20 against the Trump administration, saying it had "flouted bedrock federal statutory mandates" in approving plans for the proposed immigrant detention center in the Morris County town.
Filed in federal court, the complaint contends that DHS and ICE made an "unlawful decision" to purchase a warehouse along Route 46 in Roxbury with the intention of housing as many as 1,500 migrants at a time.
That complaint appeared moot after DHS backed off its warehouse conversion plans in Roxbury and other locations around the country. Now it is back on the front burner.
"We will continue to use every legal tool available to protect the people, property and resources of Roxbury Township," Potillo said in a statement posted on the township's website after the reversal. "This latest development does not change our position, and it does not alter the course of our legal challenge."
ICE purchased the vacant Morris County warehouse for $129.3 million in February. The state and the township sought a court injunction on April 7 to halt any construction.
A DHS official has "announced its intent to run its immigration detention operations 'like [Amazon] Prime, but with human beings,'" the state said in its motion.
For their part, federal officials have painted opposition to the warehouse detention centers as an attempt "to stop President Trump from making America safe again."
"Let’s be honest about this. This case isn’t about the environment," ICE spokeswoman Christine Cuttita said. "The left didn’t care about the mountains of litter that illegal aliens dropped on ranches and riverbeds during Biden’s border crisis."
"Should [DHS] make a final decision not to proceed with converting the Roxbury warehouse into a detention center, the parties will provide a further update to the court," the status report advised.
This article originally appeared on Morristown Daily Record: Feds say 'no timeline' to convert Roxbury warehouse for ICE facility
