DHS Reversed Withdrawal From the Roxbury Detention Center. NJ Should Hold the Line.
The Issue
Twelve days. That is how long it took the Trump administration to reverse itself on one of the most contested immigration detention proposals in the country.
On June 29, federal lawyers told a court they were done. The government would sell the warehouse in Roxbury, New Jersey, it had purchased for nearly $130 million, and move on. The case appeared settled. Then, on Friday, the same administration filed new paperwork saying it intends to convert the warehouse into a 1,500-bed ICE detention facility after all.
This is not a policy debate. It is an active lawsuit, and the federal government just told a court one thing and then the opposite.
The Roxbury warehouse plan has faced bipartisan opposition from the start. New Jersey's governor, its attorney general, and the mayor of Roxbury Township all oppose it. The state sued over environmental protection violations, and work at the site has been halted since May while assessments are conducted. That pause, the governor's office confirmed, remains in effect regardless of what DHS files.
Roxbury's mayor put it plainly: the town's opposition has not changed, and nothing the town did prompted this reversal. That means DHS reversed course on its own, after apparently losing in court, in defiance of local and state government, without explanation.
$130 million in taxpayer money for a facility no one in the surrounding community wants, acquired in a process a federal court is currently reviewing for environmental violations, and now revived through a Friday filing after the government publicly said it was done.
The environmental review that halted construction exists for a reason. Its conclusions should be honored, not routed around by reversing position in court documents on a Friday afternoon.
Sign this petition to demand DHS Secretary Mullin honor the original withdrawal, urge New Jersey's congressional delegation to defund the Roxbury conversion in appropriations, and call on Roxbury Township to hold firm against any attempt to restart work before a full environmental review is complete and its findings are made public.
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The Issue
Twelve days. That is how long it took the Trump administration to reverse itself on one of the most contested immigration detention proposals in the country.
On June 29, federal lawyers told a court they were done. The government would sell the warehouse in Roxbury, New Jersey, it had purchased for nearly $130 million, and move on. The case appeared settled. Then, on Friday, the same administration filed new paperwork saying it intends to convert the warehouse into a 1,500-bed ICE detention facility after all.
This is not a policy debate. It is an active lawsuit, and the federal government just told a court one thing and then the opposite.
The Roxbury warehouse plan has faced bipartisan opposition from the start. New Jersey's governor, its attorney general, and the mayor of Roxbury Township all oppose it. The state sued over environmental protection violations, and work at the site has been halted since May while assessments are conducted. That pause, the governor's office confirmed, remains in effect regardless of what DHS files.
Roxbury's mayor put it plainly: the town's opposition has not changed, and nothing the town did prompted this reversal. That means DHS reversed course on its own, after apparently losing in court, in defiance of local and state government, without explanation.
$130 million in taxpayer money for a facility no one in the surrounding community wants, acquired in a process a federal court is currently reviewing for environmental violations, and now revived through a Friday filing after the government publicly said it was done.
The environmental review that halted construction exists for a reason. Its conclusions should be honored, not routed around by reversing position in court documents on a Friday afternoon.
Sign this petition to demand DHS Secretary Mullin honor the original withdrawal, urge New Jersey's congressional delegation to defund the Roxbury conversion in appropriations, and call on Roxbury Township to hold firm against any attempt to restart work before a full environmental review is complete and its findings are made public.
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Petition created on July 13, 2026