Wilson County Mayor: ICE eyes immigrant detention ‘mega center’ in Lebanon to house up to 16,000

Immigration and Customs Enforcement is considering a site for a 16,000 bed immigrant detention center in Lebanon, Tenn. Wilson County Mayor Randall Hutto said. It will be the second immigrant detention facility in Tennessee. Pictured: an immigrant detention center opened this year in Mason, Tenn. (Photo: John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout)

In a public note to residents of Wilson County late Friday, County Mayor Randall Hutto said U.S Immigration and Naturalization Services is considering the City of Lebanon for a “mega center” to hold between 14,000 and 16,000 immigrant detainees from Tennessee and surrounding states. 

The proposed facility would employ 4,000 people year-round and be “the largest of its kind in the United States,” Hutto wrote. The size and scope “raise serious safety concerns,” he said. 

Hutto said he and Lebanon County Mayor Rick Bell confirmed ICE is considering a site along Highway 109 South, inside Lebanon’s city limits, with a senior lawyer in the Department of Homeland Security last week. The mayors did not release an address for the proposed site. Hutto posted Friday that it was within a “short distance” of four schools, two churches, and a daycare.

“The safety of our children and families is always our top priority, and this proximity gives us great concern,” he wrote.

Hutto could not be reached over the weekend to address additional questions about the plans outlined by federal officials. The Lookout is seeking additional details from ICE.

The New York Times reported last week that Lebanon is being considered as a site for facilities that hold 10,000-15,000 immigrant detainees. The newspaper cited Department of Homeland Security documents and property records to detail more than a dozen sites across the nation that ICE has proposed or purchased to serve as detention centers for tens of thousands of detainees as the Trump administration pursues a mass immigration detention and deportation agenda. 

The size of Lebanon’s proposed facility dwarfs every other site cited in the newspaper.

Hutto’s public note Friday capped a week of uncertainty for residents of the county, which shares a border with Nashville’s Davidson County, as the federal government issued conflicting information.

The Tennessee Lookout reported Feb. 13 a statement from ICE saying it had purchased a Lebanon facility to use for immigrant detention. 

ICE released the same statement to other media outlets Feb. 16 and Feb. 17, before reversing itself later on Feb. 17.  ”ICE has NOT purchased a facility in Lebanon, Tennessee. That statement was sent without proper approval and this mistake has since been rectified,” ICE wrote in an email to the Lookout and other media outlets late Tuesday.

Two days later, senior counsel for the Department of Homeland Security confirmed to Mayors Hutto and Bell that ICE was actively pursuing property inside the Lebanon city limits for a detention center.

 “They are in the due diligence phase of a feasibility study. They have not contacted anyone with the City of Lebanon Utilities or Engineering Departments,” Bell, the Lebanon mayor, wrote in a Facebook message. Bell said he had spoken to Republican U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, who “is working along with leaders of the Department of Homeland Security to rectify this situation.”

The prospect of an ICE facility in the fast-growing suburban city of more than 51,000 caused an uproar last week. Hundreds turned out to a community meeting Tuesday to urge local officials to to action to stop a detention center, citing opposition to the Trump administration’s immigration policies, mistreatment of immigrants and detainees elsewhere, quality of life concerns and the potential strain on already overstretched local infrastructure. 

Hundreds pack Wilson County meeting to speak out against ICE detention facility

Wilson County is among the state’s fastest growing; road and sewer infrastructure and school capacity have dominated public policy debates in recent years. The county’s low unemployment rates have left private and public employers struggling to fill jobs.

Hutto, Bell, and state lawmakers who represent the district, State Sen. Mark Pody and Rep. Clark Boyd – all Republicans – have all publicly opposed an ICE detention facility in the community. 

“From what we know today, this facility would bring more challenges than benefits to our community. We will continue asking questions, pushing for clarity, and sharing information as soon as we receive it,” Hutto said Friday.