‘the Dominos Are Falling’: Minneapolis Haunts Trump’s Detention Rollout

The Trump administration wants to swiftly expand its capacity to detain immigrants, but the deadly immigration operation in Minneapolis, along with other decisions that have alienated communities, may be emboldening a growing number of Republicans to say no thanks.

This week, New Hampshire Gov. Kelly Ayotte became the second high-profile Republican politician to convince the Department of Homeland Security to look elsewhere, after plans for a Merrimack detention facility sparked local outcry. That followed Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker’s successful push for DHS Secretary Kristi Noem to abandon plans for a site earlier this month.

Other similar skirmishes are playing out in communities around the country, with local officials complaining about lack of communication or coordination from the administration among other ills. That all could jeopardize the scope and speed of the administration’s deportation plans, which envisions purchasing 34 facilities by the end of November. So far, at least nine have been purchased, according to internal DHS documents reviewed by POLITICO and public records.

“It’s a huge problem,” said a Trump administration official, granted anonymity to speak freely about the detention warehouse plan. “The mismanagement of Minneapolis lost us the narrative, and the dominos are falling as a result.”

The latest GOP fracture comes as the Trump administration recalibrates its public immigration enforcement posture after political blowback in Minneapolis. The effort is forcing vulnerable Republicans to navigate local opposition, testing their influence with the White House and turning Trump’s national immigration agenda into a hyperlocal land-use fight.

Meanwhile, immigration hawks warn that Republicans are squandering a prime opportunity to supercharge the president’s deportation push.

“We have this great opportunity, and what you see now from Republicans, congressional members — whether it’s national or state — you have this cowardice, this backing down,” said Mark Morgan, who served as head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol during the first Trump administration. “Because they see it as a political liability.”

The White House deferred to DHS when asked for comment. DHS did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication. But a senior White House official, granted anonymity to speak candidly, dismissed concerns about Republican pushback to the administration’s warehouse plan, saying there’s “always a back-up plan” for new facilities.

“We always try to work with governors and local governments,” the official said, pointing to the administration’s success in coordinating with red states, including Louisiana, Florida and Indiana. “So it’s a matter of just working with these governors and local officials to see what works, so I wouldn’t read too much into that.”

But the not-in-my-backyard complaints over the detention centers, coupled with what some communities say has been poor communication from the administration, underscores the haste with which Trump officials are trying to open the facilities in order to fulfill the nuts-and-bolts logistics of the president’s aggressive deportation campaign. And while the municipal-level pushback has been bipartisan, the Republican opposition — which includes legal threats over the detention sites — reinforces the souring public mood and widespread anxiety over Trump’s strategy.

Some of the local worries include concerns that these huge facilities could require costly budget expansions, including to water and sewage infrastructure and even police departments. Others fret that having a detention center could make local businesses, such as farms, struggle to bring in immigrant guest workers.

And some critics don’t want to see their communities splashed across the evening news as the latest national hotspot for confrontational demonstrations.

“I don’t think people want this in their backyard so to speak,” said Daniel Harter, Jr., the Republican mayor of the village of Florida, which borders a potential ICE detention center in Orange County, New York’s Hudson Valley region. “It’s always one thing to see it on TV, but then the prospect of having it in the supermarket or outside your local business, a lot of people are like, ‘Whoa, hold on a minute.’”

Some communities’ frustrations stem from what they say is a lack of communication from the Trump administration, along with what some say has been misleading information.

In multiple states, DHS has confirmed warehouse purchases only to retract those statements soon after. That includes the potential facility in the Hudson Valley, as well as in Roxbury, New Jersey, where the DHS’ purchase of a warehouse went through on Feb. 19, according to a deed filed with the county. Both are around an hour away from New York City.

“My problem, many problems on this, is I have zero communications,” said Republican Steve Neuhaus, the county executive of Orange County. “I’m an elected official, I represent 400,000-plus Orange County residents, have gotten zero communication from them on this and they want to be a partner and operate here. I’m trying to be as polite as possible.”

Roxbury’s all-Republican town council unanimously opposed the facility, citing concerns regarding infrastructure and the cost to the community, and has since vowed to take legal action. In a statement from the mayor and council, the officials said it was “inconceivable and frankly stunning” that communications to DHS “were never answered.”

They also took aim at vulnerable Republican Rep. Tom Kean Jr., whose district encompasses Roxbury, saying he “did not engage to the level we had hoped to provide the advocacy our residents deserved.” Kean pushed back, saying that he “worked closely with officials in Roxbury and engaged directly with the highest levels of DHS on their behalf.” Days later, he introduced a bill that would require DHS to offset costs in areas where the agency has such a facility.

Democrats are also putting up a fight against the warehouses. Earlier this week, Democratic Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown filed a suit to stop the administration’s warehouse plan in the state, alleging, in part, that the administration did not go through required environmental reviews to convert a warehouse to a detention facility. New York Democrats are also threatening to tie up the potential Orange County site in paperwork, arguing that the planned facility is on a 100-year floodplain and “a number of state environmental authorizations or permits will be required.”

Some are proposing legislation to thwart the facilities. Democratic New Jersey Sen. Andy Kim, who has been working with the local Roxbury officials, on Thursday introduced a package of ICE-related bills, including one with Sen. Cory Booker that proposes prohibiting DHS from using funds from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act to purchase or repurpose warehouses to detain immigrants.

Kim said he’s spoken with Republican colleagues in the Senate who are “so frustrated” because it “makes no sense” to put these facilities in residential areas.

“I’m not using this as some sort of means to throw political bombs and gain attention,” Kim said. “It’s important to show this has deep concerns and outrage across the political spectrum.” 

Detention space has long been a stumbling block for the administration’s aggressive deportation agenda — a problem Trump officials and allies hope to fix with its mega-detention center plan, as some facilities are expected to hold as many as 8,000 people at once.

“ICE has to do something about detention capacity because it’s an obstacle in removing people efficiently,” said Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies, a group that works to restrict immigration. “And if they can’t detain everyone, what happens is, the non-detained docket is so much longer and it ceases to be a deterrent if people are gonna get arrested and then just released.”

The latest data from ICE shows that roughly 68,000 people are in detention, and the new model is supposed to increase bed capacity to 92,600, according to ICE documents released by Ayotte. Using funds from the GOP tax and domestic policy legislation passed last year, ICE has estimated the total project to cost $38.3 billion.

So far, the administration has completed at least nine of the purchases in Roxbury, New Jersey; Hagerstown, Maryland; Surprise, Arizona; Tremont and Hamburg, Pennsylvania; Social Circle, Georgia; Romulus, Michigan; as well as Socorro/Clint and San Antonio, Texas, according to internal documents and public records.

In Social Circle, Georgia, DHS is moving forward with its plan despite intense local pushback. City officials met with administration officials last week and continue to express concerns about the facility, which will have up to 10,000 beds.

City manager Eric Taylor has a range of worries, including the strain it could put on the community’s first responders, not to mention its at-capacity wastewater treatment plant — a problem local officials were beginning to make headway on.

“It felt like we were getting some progress, and now all of a sudden, you’ve got this landing in your lap without even asking for it and not really sure what the ultimate impact is going to be,” Taylor said. “You’re talking about tripling the population of the city overnight.”