Federal officials propose the sale of the planned ICE Detention Center in Oakwood

The plan to open a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in the small city of Oakwood, Georgia, may have been stalled.

Department of Homeland Security officials sent a letter to the city of Flowery Branch last week saying that they are proposing to sell the property on the 3600 block of Atlanta Highway.

The letter invited Oakwood and Flowery Branch officials, federally recognized tribes, and the Georgia State Historic Preservation Office to comment on the sale. The two small towns sit just four miles apart about an hour and a half northeast of Atlanta next to Lake Lanier.

DHS bought the more than 540,000-square-foot warehouse for more than $68 million in 2025. Oakwood officials first learned about the plan to convert the facility into a detention center in February 2026.

Even after a pause on the development in April, Oakwood City Manager B.R. White told CBS News Atlanta that the city was still preparing for increased police and infrastructure costs associated with the facility.

“We’re still preparing for civil unrest just by seeing what has happened in Minnesota. We have to plan for the worst and hope for the best,” he said.

The only problem is that improving infrastructure costs money.

“There’s a sum that’s going to cost us up front to prepare for that, and it’s over $200,000 that we didn’t budget for this year,” he said.

The letter from DHS about the potential sale of the property was the first communication White said the city received from the federal government about the project.