ICE plans to convert Big Lots warehouse into detention center blown up by tribal nation

Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been dealt yet another setback in its hunt for a new detention site in Durant, Oklahoma, as a tribal nation opposed to its plans bought a disused warehouse it was eyeing.

According to Michael Wriston's Project Salt Box, the Choctaw Nation has purchased the 1.24-million-square-foot warehouse, previously operated by discount retail chain Big Lots.

"The purchase removes the property, located at 2306 Enterprise Drive, from the federal market and, based on Project Salt Box analysis of comparable warehouse conversions, forecloses an estimated 8,500 detention beds from ICE’s expanding warehouse-to-detention pipeline," said the report, noting that the detention bed figure is "derived from comparisons with similarly sized warehouse sales under the agency’s Detention Reengineering Initiative, including a facility in El Paso, Texas, where ICE has targeted the same detainee count in a warehouse of comparable size."

Last year, Durant officials grew alarmed upon learning ICE was considering the Big Lots warehouse for a detention facility. The city passed an ordinance to restrict such a sale.

"Chief Gary Batton said the nation has not yet determined a use for the facility, describing it as an opportunity to support operational growth adjacent to the tribe’s existing headquarters campus on Durant’s south side," noted the report.

As ICE operations under the Trump administration have grown more controversial, it has become harder for the government to get its hands on potential properties to convert to detention facilities. They had also planned to acquire a warehouse in Dallas, only for the property group holding it to refuse to sell to them.

This also comes amid reports of horror stories coming from existing detention facilities, with the sheriff of San Diego County, California, reportedly failing to investigate seven sexual assault cases at the privately run Otay Mesa facility last year.