Three Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities are expanding or being established in Michigan, according to federal records obtained by WIRED in a new report released Tuesday.
The current ICE facility at the Rosa Parks Federal Building in downtown Detroit, which also currently houses offices for the U.S. General Services Administration, Internal Revenue Service, and Customs and Border Protection, will expand, while new offices will be leased at the Waters Center in downtown Grand Rapids and the One Towne Square complex in Southfield, just outside Detroit.
ICE did not respond to a request for confirmation of these new and expanded locations.
The Waters Center currently does not list ICE or any relevant groups as a part of its tenant directory. Neither the Waters Center nor One Towne Square responded to requests for comment from Michigan Advance.
These facilities are part of a nationwide expansion of ICE’s physical presence — the WIRED report details 54 locations, all “planned ICE lease locations as of January, and includes current ICE offices that are set to expand and new spaces the agency is poised to occupy.”
This physical expansion also comes as ICE has been undertaking a national hiring surge. According to WIRED, these new leases are intended to provide new homes for the ICE offices that handle immigration enforcement, including the arrest, detention, and removal of immigrants, as well as the agency’s legal arm.
Michigan is already home to the North Lake Processing Center in Baldwin, the largest ICE detention center in the Midwest and one of the largest in the nation. The facility, which has drawn numerous protests from activists, is operated through a private contract with the GEO Group.
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