Surprise Mayor Kevin Sartor disclosed new details this week about a meeting he held with federal authorities over a planned ICE facility in the city.
Sartor said the Department of Homeland Security assured him the facility would not “trigger local immigration enforcement activities,” and that ICE would avoid operations in sensitive areas like schools, churches and senior centers.
Sartor said DHS also proposed a reimbursement for property tax loss related to the facility.
“If it were operating as a normal distribution center, we get about $300,000 a year out of that property tax,” Sartor said. “And so, we're working with them to try to recover that money.”
Sartor said he hopes to enter into a memorandum of understanding with DHS to solidify the conditions discussed at the March 19 meeting.
“I acknowledge that for some, the outcome of this meeting will not be satisfactory,” he said [at a news conference](
Monday. “However, as your mayor, I'm confident that the relationships established and the answers obtained put the City of Surprise in the best position moving forward.”
Sartor: DHS says facility would hold no more than 542 beds##
Local officials and community members have been raising questions about the facility since late January, when the Department of Homeland Security purchased a warehouse in the City of Surprise. In February, Sartor penned a letter to federal authorities, requesting a meeting to discuss the facility.
During the March 19 meeting, DHS officials described a facility that would detain single adults only, with a maximum capacity of 542 beds, Sartor said. (In contrast, an ICE memo last month had described a maximum capacity of 1,500 beds.)
Sartor said city officials would provide a formal update on the facility at a council meeting on April 7.
DHS and ICE did not immediately respond to requests for comment Tuesday.
The recent development comes as DHS plans new facilities in warehouses across the country, a New York Times investigation found. It also comes as civil rights organizations decry record-high death rates in ICE detention centers.
