Sen. Raphael Warnock files amendment to block funding for Oakwood and Social Circle ICE detention centers

Sen. Raphael Warnock is attempting to stop the construction of immigration detention facilities that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement wants to open in two small Georgia towns.

In an amendment Warnock filed to a House spending bill regarding the Department of Homeland Security on Friday, the Georgia senator proposed language that would block any of the bill's funding for the proposed detention centers. 

"None of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available to the Department of Homeland Security, by this Act, by Public Law 119-21, or by any other Act may be used by the Department of Homeland Security for the acquisition, construction, renovation, or expansion of any U.S. Immigration and Enforcement detention center located in Social Circle, Georgia or Oakwood, Georgia unless such action in either such location is explicitly authorized by an Act of Congress," the amendment reads.

Warnock also added language that would require any facilities "intended to be used for the detention of noncitizens" to be subject to inspection requirements and environmental laws, including requiring site assessments.

"The people of Georgia want secure borders; they do not want massive immigration detention centers in their backyards," Warnock said. "If the Trump Administration focused on getting violent criminals out of the country, we would not need new detention centers straining Georgia's rural communities. That's why I'm standing with the residents of Social Circle and Oakwood and fighting to BLOCK these detention facilities from towns that don't want them."

Contentious plans for ICE facilities in Georgia

Warnock's amendment came after officials in both Social Circle and Oakwood spoke up about feeling left out of plans by the federal agency to convert warehouses within their city limits into facilities to hold thousands of detainees.

In Oakwood, officials say they learned about the plan this week from the Gainesville Field Office of U.S. Rep. Andrew Clyde, a Republican congressman representing the city.

"It feels like we were blindsided and that we've been steamrolled over," City Manager B.R. White told CBS News Atlanta.

Oakwood's facility, comprised of a pair of warehouses totaling more than 600,000 square feet and located about a mile from its city hall, is expected to hold about 1,500 detainees.

In Social Circle, federal officials are reportedly working to finalize the purchase of a facility on Hightower Trail with plans to open a detention center that could hold up to 10,000 detainees.

Social Circle city leaders say they were not involved in key stages of the process, including an engineering evaluation of city utilities conducted by the DHS, and they worry that the center could overwhelm the city's resources—potentially tripling its population overnight.

Funding for the DHS is set to expire Saturday as Senate lawmakers continue to debate new restrictions on federal immigration operations.

If no spending bill is passed, closures will only affect agencies under the DHS, including ICE and Border Protection, will be affected.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.