A small town about 45 miles east of Atlanta is pushing back against a massive immigration detention center leaders say will stretch its infrastructure past the breaking point.
Social Circle City Manager Eric Taylor said there is a lock on the water meter at the facility, and it will stay there until U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement can demonstrate that it can operate the facility without overburdening water and sewer services.
“There is a lock on the meter,” Taylor said in a statement. “A representative from ICE was informed about the lock on the meter shortly after the sale of the property when she inquired about how to establish an account. The lock is there until ICE indicates how water and sewer will be served without exceeding our limited infrastructure capacity. The City of Social Circle is not satisfied that an adequate engineering analysis has been conducted.”
Taylor said information provided by ICE officials suggests the facility, originally built to be an industrial warehouse, would exceed the water and sewer capacity of the town. Plans call for the facility to house up to 10,000 detainees at a time and employ up to 2,500 people, according to city officials. Social Circle’s population is around 5,000.
The detention center is part of ICE’s $38.6 billion Detention Reengineering Initiative funded by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act to facilitate the Trump administration’s controversial mass deportation plans, but Social Circle leaders reported being blindsided by the plans late last year when they became public.