Plans for ICE facility in Roxbury, N.J., spark protest from residents, political leaders
Several hundred protesters in Roxbury, New Jersey, took to the street Saturday expressing outrage over plans to build a United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in their town.
Residents spoke out alongside political leaders who are working on a bill designed to make it harder to build more detention sites.
Roxbury residents concerned about detention facilities
ICE says it bought vacant space up the road from Roxbury Town Hall, saying they will not be warehouses, but "very well-structured detention facilities meeting our regular detention standards."
Ann Mauro, who has lived in Roxbury for nearly 30 years, says there's been a lack of transparency.
"DHS hasn't really provided any details to the town, so they don't know what really is gonna be the impact," she said.
Residents are concerned over the site possibly straining resources to local communities, even saying that Roxbury could lose out on much-needed tax revenue because government-owned buildings are exempt from property taxes.
"The town is going to now lose out on $1.8 million annually in property tax revenue from that property," Mauro said.
But ICE claims the town will benefit, saying the sites "will undergo community impact studies and a rigorous due diligence process to make sure there is no hardship on local utilities or infrastructure prior to purchase. The Roxbury facility and its construction are expected to bring 1,300 jobs."
Bill would allow ICE lawsuits, impose tax
Assemblymembers Ravi Bhalla and Katie Brennan are proposing a bill that would impose a 50% tax on ICE facilities across the state and allow individuals to sue ICE.
"What Assemblywoman Brennan and I are doing is taking the feeling that we see on the streets to the halls of Trenton," Bhalla said.
"We are going to make sure that we can sue the hell out of them, that we can tax the hell out of them," Brennan said.
Not one but two rallies were held in Roxbury on Saturday, with demonstrators saying there will be more.
"It's gonna tear [Roxbury] apart," said Jimmy Proya, who has lived in the town for decades. "It's also going to basically stain the town as being an ICE facility town."
"I raised my kids here. They've gone to the great school district," Mauro said. "This is gonna be the town that they're looking back on as, like, this is not the town I grew up in."