DHS scraps plans to turn Georgia warehouse into detention mega center, city says | CNN

The Trump administration is backing away from its plans to convert a warehouse in a small Georgia city into a “mega center” holding thousands of immigration detainees, just four months after first confirming it had purchased the building. “The City of Social Circle has received notification from Congressman Mike Collins that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is no longer pursuing an ICE detention facility within the City of Social Circle,” the local government said in a statement Thursday. The department’s original plans for the facility stated it would be able to accommodate up to 10,000 detainees – nearly double the entire population of Social Circle – along with 2,000 to 2,500 employees. The federal government paid $128.5 million for the property, the deed shows. That was more than four times the $29.4 million it previously sold for in 2023. How ICE plans for a detention warehouse pushed a Georgia town to fight back City leaders said it was not immediately clear if the government would sell the property or if it would be used for a different purpose, but they hope it ends up back in private hands. “The City is hopeful that the property will ultimately ret