Our democratic republic is an ingenious combination of direct democracy operating within a republic. Citizens participate in local decision-making and elect representatives who address most issues within a constitutional framework that safeguards individual rights and places restrictions on governmental power.
Usually, as citizens, our direct participation in a democratic republic consists of voting for elected representatives, writing letters to them, participating with them in events such as town halls and being involved in political parties. In a democracy, citizens have input on local issues that affect their way of life.
Every now and again elected leaders, acting in a vacuum, peremptorily make a policy decision with significant local impact but without public input. When that happens, citizens must rush to give their input after the decision has already been made. That’s the opposite of the way democracy is supposed to work. It’s happening now, as citizen groups scramble to respond to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s decision to put a mass immigration internment camp in Salt Lake City.
The Trump administration has spent 145 million dollars to purchase a former Amazon warehouse in Salt Lake City to detain and house up to 10,000 human beings. This is a classic example of democracy not working — no local input, no careful consideration of community effects and too much government intervention. This is tyranny on the part of the federal government and requires a vigorous grassroots response aimed at stopping such folly.
Is ICE thinking that the deportation process of thousands of immigrants can operate like Amazon Prime? Do they really believe that an 850,000-square-foot warehouse designed for purchase fulfillment at speeds that no other company can match can be made to house thousands of immigrants — women, children and men?
This is no way to treat human beings, immigrants or otherwise. It is an invitation for a humanitarian disaster of diabolical proportions.
ICE has targeted other communities where massive warehouses lie empty. ICE is moving forward, converting these warehouses into monster jails. But residents are fighting back and federal courts are halting these projects.
Two months ago, the State of Maryland filed suit in federal court to block a warehouse conversion complaining that ICE has “run roughshod over federal law and trampled on the State’s interests.” The State’s complaint includes evidence of alarming conditions, even in smaller ICE detention facilities around the country, including a measles outbreak, sewage problems and generally unsanitary conditions causing serious public health consequences — not to mention a rising tide of deaths on ICE’s watch.
The Maryland court concluded that ICE failed to account for local infrastructure and environmental impacts, stating “The record reflects a decision-making process that was not only rushed but appeared designed to evade the very transparency federal law requires. To proceed … without a singular public hearing or environmental assessment is, on its face, a failure of reasoned agency action.” The court found the impact on local water and sewage infrastructure particularly troubling and said the existing infrastructure could not sustain the load without risking a public health crisis in the surrounding community. In other words, an unmitigated disaster was looming.
A Salt Lake City ICE warehouse faces the same risks and more. Water usage requirements alone are a daunting problem for Salt Lake City, especially given the drought, the disappearance of the Great Salt Lake and the data center being planned in Box Elder County. But other risks loom as well, especially given the lack of site analysis for the project.
That’s why ICE’s Salt Lake City project must be halted before it reaches the point of no return. As the Maryland court said, “The irreversible commitment of resources, including the millions of dollars already spent on a site that may be logistically untenable — demands a ‘hard look’ before a brick is laid.”
In Michigan a smaller warehouse conversion has been temporarily halted pending a hearing in federal court later this month. A case in New Jersey is at the same stage. Recently, Arizona became the fourth state so far to file suit in a warehouse conversion case. When filing this action Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes announced, “You lose every battle that you choose not to fight. Today, the State of Arizona is choosing to fight.”
Utah, too, should draw a hard line at retrofitting an industrial warehouse that was never designed to hold human beings. Hopefully, Utah Attorney General Derek Brown will file suit. That failing, it will fall to Salt Lake City and Mayor Mendenhall to do so before the first metaphorical bricks can be laid.
Meanwhile, the residents of Salt Lake City must demonstrate their opposition. What are the implications of an ICE warehouse for public health, hospitals, utilities, the environment, public safety, taxation, tourism, the economy and human rights? ICE failed to consider any of these issues. We must act now to stop the folly of an ICE mega-internment camp. Will we step up, or do we let ICE snooker us?