New Jersey Sues to Stop Proposed ICE Facility in Roxbury (3)

Federal immigration authorities must be stopped from using a Roxbury, NJ warehouse for a detention center or risk overwhelming local utilities infrastructure, a complaint filed Friday claims.

Plans to flip a 470,000-square-foot building federal officials purchased from Goldman Sachs would violate procedural laws and imperil the health of the detainees and surrounding community, the state and city alleged in their lawsuit filed in the US District Court for the District of New Jersey.

“The Roxbury Warehouse is a logistics center fit for Amazon Prime packages, not people—among other things, it currently has a total of four toilets, despite the planned influx of up to 1,500 detainees and hundreds more ICE employees,” said the complaint.

“Indeed, the influx of up to 1,500 detainees requiring potable water and sewage conveyance would strain beyond capacity the local water and sewage systems, threatening water availability and risking sewage overflows into land and water,” the complaint said.

Roxbury Township’s Republican mayor and entirely-Republican town council also oppose the warehouse conversion, New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill (D) said in a news conference Friday.

“Let’s be honest about this. This case isn’t about the environment. It’s about trying to stop President Trump from making America safe again,” US Immigration and Customs Enforcement said in a statement.

Environmental Impact

The facility, located 40 miles west of Manhattan, is part of a broader Trump administration push to quickly flip existing warehouse footprints across the country into detention centers, adding immense capacity to bolster its deportation priorities.

“Whatever the merits of DHS’s policy goals, the agency’s rush to ramp up immigration detention capacity by using the Roxbury Warehouse has violated countless federal statutes,” the complaint said.

The core arguments revolve around claims that speedy overhaul of buildings intended for product storage violate the National Environmental Policy Act and federal Administrative Procedure Act, as well as statutes governing immigration officials’ powers and the need to coordinate between federal and state officers.

New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport (D) said the facility will pollute Lake Hopatcong, the state’s largest freshwater body, and send sewage into the waters from which 70% of the state gets drinking water.

In addition to the project requiring 15 times the site’s sewage capacity, there’s concern over depleting local groundwater and overtaxing municipal water resources to the point where the fire department couldn’t put out fires, Sherrill said.

“You can’t just turn on the faucet for 2,000 more people,” she said.

Groups suing over detention facility construction across the country have brought similar claims—including an ongoing lawsuit over the “Alligator Alcatraz” facility constructed in the Florida Everglades. Federal officials claim that these projects aren’t “major federal actions” warranting environmental review; that case is currently before the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals.

The government’s “failure to prepare any public report on the profound impacts that its decision to establish a detention center at this site will have, including on an area that provides more than 70% of New Jerseyans’ drinking water and important sewage systems, is legally fatal,” the complaint said.

ICE rebutted this in its statement, saying prior “to purchasing this site, ICE carefully evaluated the use of existing facilities to help minimize environmental impacts, including potential impacts to protected species, sensitive natural resources, and valued cultural resources.”

Senate Attention

The issue received national attention this week in the Senate.

In his confirmation hearing for Homeland Security secretary, nominee Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) told Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ) he’d visit the facility with his fellow senator after concerns were raised about the ability of the local government to handle the development.

“Never once did an ICE official go, talk to the local mayor, talk to local law enforcement, assess the situation with the local officials,” Kim said.

Mullin responded that growing up in a small Oklahoma community he understands that this kind of development could have a big impact, especially on utilities, that some communities might not able to accommodate.

“Realistically, most municipalities don’t have the capacity in their infrastructure for waste and water, so it’s important that we’re talking to the communities and if we’re having additional needs we can work with the cities, we can work with the municipalities, but we should always communicate with them,” he said.

The plaintiffs are represented by the New Jersey Attorney General’s office and Murphy McKeon PC.

New Jersey v. U.S. Immigr. and Customs Enf’t, D.N.J., No. 2:26-cv-02884, complaint filed 3/20/26.