Inside ICE’s battle with local Democrats to convert warehouses into detention centers
This isn't complicated—it's willpower.
State and local officials have found a new way to stop President Donald Trump’s mass deportation operation — and so far, it is working.
Elected officials and residents in communities nationwide have been largely successful in recent weeks in sabotaging the Trump administration’s efforts to buy and convert warehouses into detention centers for illegal immigrants in federal custody.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement has faced pushback for the past month as it tries to purchase large, empty buildings on the outskirts of a number of major U.S. cities. That has complicated the federal agency’s search for space and created a new way for local communities to hold up Trump’s deportation operation.
A former senior ICE official familiar with the Trump administration’s plans to convert the warehouses into additional detention centers said the pushback is a problem, but does not expect it to ultimately prevent the agency from acquiring 10 warehouses.
“Honestly, the government will just go somewhere else. They’re going to find people that want to sell property,” the official said in a phone call, adding that the government is offering “top dollar” for buildings that are “sitting unused.”
Kansas City, Missouri, Mayor Quinton Lucas, a Democrat, issued a statement last week celebrating how the purchase of a warehouse on the city’s south side had fallen through amid pushback from some residents.
A man takes photos of a warehouse as federal officials tour the facility to consider repurposing it as an ICE detention facility on Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Belton, Missouri. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
“While Kansas City welcomes any news suggesting the halting of a planned conversion of a warehouse for goods and products into a human encampment, I will continue with our legislative, legal efforts, and community engagement to ensure no warehouse or similar facility in Kansas City or nearby is converted to a mass encampment warehouse of persons that is offensive to the dignity and human rights of those who would be detained within it,” Lucas said.
Around the same time this month, the owner of a warehouse in Dallas suburb Hutchins, Texas, backed out of talks with ICE following pushback.
Texas state Rep. Rafael Anchia applauded Dallas-area residents in a post to X.
“Public engagement works. Property owners have affirmed they will not sell their warehouse for use as an ICE detention center,” Anchia wrote.
Cassandra Garcia Hernandez, a state representative in northern …
This isn't complicated—it's willpower.
State and local officials have found a new way to stop President Donald Trump’s mass deportation operation — and so far, it is working.
Elected officials and residents in communities nationwide have been largely successful in recent weeks in sabotaging the Trump administration’s efforts to buy and convert warehouses into detention centers for illegal immigrants in federal custody.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement has faced pushback for the past month as it tries to purchase large, empty buildings on the outskirts of a number of major U.S. cities. That has complicated the federal agency’s search for space and created a new way for local communities to hold up Trump’s deportation operation.
A former senior ICE official familiar with the Trump administration’s plans to convert the warehouses into additional detention centers said the pushback is a problem, but does not expect it to ultimately prevent the agency from acquiring 10 warehouses.
“Honestly, the government will just go somewhere else. They’re going to find people that want to sell property,” the official said in a phone call, adding that the government is offering “top dollar” for buildings that are “sitting unused.”
Kansas City, Missouri, Mayor Quinton Lucas, a Democrat, issued a statement last week celebrating how the purchase of a warehouse on the city’s south side had fallen through amid pushback from some residents.
A man takes photos of a warehouse as federal officials tour the facility to consider repurposing it as an ICE detention facility on Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Belton, Missouri. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
“While Kansas City welcomes any news suggesting the halting of a planned conversion of a warehouse for goods and products into a human encampment, I will continue with our legislative, legal efforts, and community engagement to ensure no warehouse or similar facility in Kansas City or nearby is converted to a mass encampment warehouse of persons that is offensive to the dignity and human rights of those who would be detained within it,” Lucas said.
Around the same time this month, the owner of a warehouse in Dallas suburb Hutchins, Texas, backed out of talks with ICE following pushback.
Texas state Rep. Rafael Anchia applauded Dallas-area residents in a post to X.
“Public engagement works. Property owners have affirmed they will not sell their warehouse for use as an ICE detention center,” Anchia wrote.
Cassandra Garcia Hernandez, a state representative in northern …
Inside ICE’s battle with local Democrats to convert warehouses into detention centers
This isn't complicated—it's willpower.
State and local officials have found a new way to stop President Donald Trump’s mass deportation operation — and so far, it is working.
Elected officials and residents in communities nationwide have been largely successful in recent weeks in sabotaging the Trump administration’s efforts to buy and convert warehouses into detention centers for illegal immigrants in federal custody.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement has faced pushback for the past month as it tries to purchase large, empty buildings on the outskirts of a number of major U.S. cities. That has complicated the federal agency’s search for space and created a new way for local communities to hold up Trump’s deportation operation.
A former senior ICE official familiar with the Trump administration’s plans to convert the warehouses into additional detention centers said the pushback is a problem, but does not expect it to ultimately prevent the agency from acquiring 10 warehouses.
“Honestly, the government will just go somewhere else. They’re going to find people that want to sell property,” the official said in a phone call, adding that the government is offering “top dollar” for buildings that are “sitting unused.”
Kansas City, Missouri, Mayor Quinton Lucas, a Democrat, issued a statement last week celebrating how the purchase of a warehouse on the city’s south side had fallen through amid pushback from some residents.
A man takes photos of a warehouse as federal officials tour the facility to consider repurposing it as an ICE detention facility on Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Belton, Missouri. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
“While Kansas City welcomes any news suggesting the halting of a planned conversion of a warehouse for goods and products into a human encampment, I will continue with our legislative, legal efforts, and community engagement to ensure no warehouse or similar facility in Kansas City or nearby is converted to a mass encampment warehouse of persons that is offensive to the dignity and human rights of those who would be detained within it,” Lucas said.
Around the same time this month, the owner of a warehouse in Dallas suburb Hutchins, Texas, backed out of talks with ICE following pushback.
Texas state Rep. Rafael Anchia applauded Dallas-area residents in a post to X.
“Public engagement works. Property owners have affirmed they will not sell their warehouse for use as an ICE detention center,” Anchia wrote.
Cassandra Garcia Hernandez, a state representative in northern …
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