Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D-New Hampshire) and Maggie Hassan (D-New Hampshire) plan to introduce a bill Monday that would bar the Department of Homeland Security from opening new immigration detention centers without state and local officials’ consent.
The legislation is a response to the Trump administration’s plans to convert warehouses into new processing sites and detention centers across the country as part of President Donald Trump’s campaign to deport millions of undocumented immigrants. Reps. Chris Pappas (D-New Hampshire) and Maggie Goodlander (D-New Hampshire) plan to introduce a companion bill in the House.
The legislation has little chance of passing the Republican-controlled Congress, but it reflects the qualms that lawmakers in both parties have expressed about the administration’s push to set up facilities in their states and districts, some of which could house as many as 10,000 people.
“Our new bill responds directly to the concerns we’ve heard from local officials in towns like Merrimack, New Hampshire, and across the country,” Shaheen said in a statement. “They were never consulted about ICE’s plans, and they don’t want the chaos of new detention facilities in their communities.”
Shaheen and Hassan are introducing the bill as Democrats demand the Trump administration agree to new restrictions on DHS after federal agents last month shot and killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis. Much of DHS shut down earlier this month after the two sides failed to strike a deal to send more money to the agency.
The bill would prohibit DHS from setting up new processing sites or detention centers unless local officials and the state’s governor sign off.
At least one governor — Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) — has said he opposes the administration’s plans to set up a new detention center in his state.
“I don’t think this is helpful to have in our community,” Shapiro said this month. “I don’t want it here, and we’re exploring what options we have.”
The bill would also require the administration to notify Congress and seek public comment for at least 30 days before setting up new detention centers or processing sites.
Republicans in Congress largely support Trump’s deportation campaign, which they argue is necessary after the arrival of millions of undocumented immigrants under the Biden administration. Republicans included $45 billion for expanding immigration detention in the tax and spending law that Trump signed last year. But some Republican lawmakers have expressed concerns about the administration’s plans to set up new detention centers and processing sites in their states and districts.
Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Mississippi) relayed local officials’ concerns about a proposed facility in his state to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem earlier this month. “I appreciate her for agreeing to look elsewhere,” Wicker wrote on X.
Rep. Dan Meuser (R-Pennsylvania) said he is working to set up a meeting between DHS officials and local leaders in his district, where DHS bought facilities that it plans to convert into a processing site and detention center.
“These recent developments have raised serious concerns, and I share many of the same questions being raised by local officials and residents,” Meuser said in a statement.
Sen. Dave McCormick (R-Pennsylvania) said in a statement that his team was also in touch with DHS officials and local leaders to assess “the impact of the facilities, including the possibility of thousands of new jobs.”
Rep. Mike Collins (R-Georgia) and his aides have been in frequent communication with ICE and local leaders about a planned detention center in his district that would hold up to 9,000 people, according to Emma Gibson, a Collins spokeswoman. The district is a Republican stronghold, but the city manager of Social Circle — the small city where the detention center would open — and many residents oppose the project.
Collins supports Trump’s efforts “to detain and deport criminal illegal aliens who flooded across our border under Joe Biden, but he also shares the concerns of the Social Circle community that the city may not have the infrastructure or capacity to support the demands of this facility,” Gibson wrote in an email to The Washington Post.
Democrats appear to have had less success in pushing back on the administration’s plans to build new detention centers and processing sites. Hassan told Todd M. Lyons, the acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, in a hearing last week that DHS had failed to consult local leaders about its plans to open a facility in her state.
“I would hope that I would get the same treatment to that Senator Wicker got — which is to say the town doesn’t want the dentition center, so please cancel it,” Hassan said. “And I would expect that my partisan affiliation shouldn’t make any difference to that determination.”
Lyons said in the hearing that DHS officials had spoken with New Hampshire Gov. Kelly Ayotte (R) about the project’s economic impact.
Sen. John Fetterman (Pennsylvania) — the only Senate Democrat who voted for legislation this month to fund DHS — has come out against the proposed facilities in his state, warning that they would “do significant damage to these local tax bases, set back decades-long efforts to boost economic development, and place undue burdens on limited existing infrastructure in these communities.”
Democrats from Georgia, New Jersey and Arizona have also voiced concerns about proposed detention centers and processing sites.
Sens. Ruben Gallego (D-Arizona) and Mark Kelly (D-Arizona) wrote to Noem and Lyons this month seeking more information by Feb. 17 about DHS’s purchase of a warehouse in Surprise, Arizona, that it plans to turn into a processing site.
“Given the scale of this project, the total lack of community involvement, the concerns we have heard from local leaders, and the potential implications for the community and region, we urge the Department to immediately provide answers about this project before it moves forward,” Gallego and Kelly wrote.
The Democrats have not heard back from DHS, according to Kelly’s office.
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