Julia Conley is a staff writer for Common Dreams.
Merrimack, New Hampshire over the weekend became one of the latest US communities to rally against Trump administration plans to use a local warehouse to detain up to 1,000 people at a time, and on Monday, federal lawmakers from the New England state unveiled legislation to ensure the Department of Homeland Security listens to the 1,500 people who showed up to protest.
In the US Senate, Democratic Sens. Maggie Hassan and Jeanne Shaheen introduced the Respect for Local Communities Act, while Reps. Chris Pappas and Maggie Goodlander, also Democrats from the Granite State, proposed a companion bill in the House. The legislation would require DHS to open a public comment period and receive approval from state and local officials before building, acquiring, or operating any new Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centers or processing facilities—at least two dozen of which ICE plans to open in order to hold up to 10,000 people at a time as part of President Donald Trump's mass deportation campaign.As Common Dreams reported earlier this month, the administration plans to spend $38.3 billion to acquire and retrofit warehouses in states including New Hampshire, Georgia, and New York to detain immigrants. The plan has received pushback from both sides of the aisle. Although the Republican Party vehemently backs Trump's mass deportation and detention campaign—which has killed at least 26 people in the last year, including least three US citizens who were fatally shot—lawmakers including Sen. Roger Wicker and Rep. Mike Collins have objected to plans to build detention facilities in their states and districts, citing 'economic development' and 'infrastructure' concerns. The Democrats who introduced the legislation on Monday spoke about widespread opposition to the 'secretive facilities' and the 'stunning displays of violence and cruelty' that have been part of Trump's mass detention operation. 'At a time when so many Americans are struggling with high costs for things like healthcare and housing, the Trump administration is instead spending $38 billion in taxpayer money to purchase and operate these facilities,” said Shaheen. “Our new bill responds directly to the concerns we’ve heard from local officials in towns like Merrimack, New Hampshire and across the country: They were never consulted about ICE’s plans, and they don’t want the chaos of new detention facilities in their communities. By requiring DHS to secure approval from state and local officials, our legislation would ensure that Americans and Granite Staters have a say in what the federal government is planning in our own communities.” The bill would also require DHS to notify Congress before setting up new detention centers.Last week, Hassan noted in a hearing where acting ICE Director Todd Lyons testified that Wicker had successfully pushed DHS to cancel plans to open a facility in Mississippi. “I would hope that I would get the same treatment that Sen. 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.”In Merrimack over the weekend, hundreds of locals lined the streets outside the town hall, holding signs that read, 'Human rights are for everyone' and “ICE: bringing terror and cruelty to a community near you.'Communities in Tennessee, New York, and Maryland have also spokesn out about plans for new detention centers recent weeks, and in the latter state, Attorney General Anthony Brown sued the Trump administration in Monday over its purchase of a warehouse in Williamsport where it plans to detain up to 1,500 people. “Federal law gives Marylanders the right to know when and how detention facilities are built in their communities,” said Brown. “That right was denied. Today, our office is taking them to court.”
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