DHS pauses ICE detention plans, halting proposed Georgia facilities for now

The Department of Homeland Security has placed a hold on establishing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centers across the country.

That includes two locations in Georgia: Social Circle and Oakwood.

Social Circle City Manager Eric Taylor said he was supposed to meet with DHS officials on Wednesday to discuss plans to open a massive detention center on the outskirts of the small town.

“It got canceled a couple of days ago, and the only reason why they told me for being canceled was it was due to them doing a department-wide review of processes under the new leadership,” he said.

The new leadership refers to the confirmation of Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin after the ousting of Kristi Noem.

City officials learned that DHS planned to open an ICE detention center that could house around 9,000 detainees from a Washington Post investigation published December 2025. The town itself has just under 5,400 people total and concerns were raised about the town’s ability to provide the proper infrastructure for such a facility.

Taylor said he placed a lock on the water meter in March shortly after the sale of the warehouse to the federal government. A statement from the city read that the lock would remain in place until ICE shows how water and sewage will be served at the facility without exceeding the city’s infrastructure capacity.

DHS plans to better engage with local stakeholders and revise any current plans based on those conversations.

“Our preference would be for them to find in their new reviews that this is not the right fit for them and move somewhere else,” Taylor said.

Oakwood is in a similar position. DHS had plans to transform a warehouse into a temporary detention facility that could hold up to 1,500 people.

“Hopefully the new DHS secretary will follow through with his comments and thoroughly review the warehouse-to-detention facility program, including meeting with local governments to discuss the impacts,” White said in an interview with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.