El Paso County files federal lawsuit against ICE over proposed detention center in Socorro

EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- El Paso County Commissioners Court voted and approved an item to direct the El Paso County Attorney's Office to file a federal lawsuit against the federal government to force the disclosure of records related to plans to open what they call a "mega" detention center within county limits; the county also demands transparency for the residents of that area of town.

According to El Paso County Attorney Christina Sanchez, the lawsuit targets what local leaders describe as a "persistent pattern of secrecy by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) regarding the facility’s location and development."

The federal government acquired some property in Socorro, Texas, back in January for more than $122 million and allegedly awarded a $30 million no-bid contract to design a facility capable of housing up to 8,500 individuals.

"Despite these significant developments, ICE has provided little to no information to the public regarding the project’s potential impact on critical community resources, including the water supply and local infrastructure," said the El Paso County Attorney's Office.

ABC-7 reported last month that the County was raising concerns over proposed ICE detention centers, including the proposed one in Socorro, Texas.

"Given the vast scale of this facility, it could place enormous demands on natural resources, emergency services, public health systems, and local infrastructure,” said El Paso County Attorney Christina Sanchez. “Transparency is essential to ensure that both the public and local governmental entities fully understand what is happening in the community and what plans are in place to keep it safe and sustainable. Additionally, concerns raised about the federal government’s current oversight and management of migrant detention facilities only heighten the urgency of obtaining this information,” Sanchez added.

According to the County Attorney's Office, the legal basis for the litigation is the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), a federal law that ensures the public can access government documents to promote transparency and keep the government accountable.

Although the County Attorney’s Office submitted a formal records request in February, ICE did not comply with the law’s mandatory 20-day response deadline. Therefore, the proposed lawsuit seeks a federal court order declaring ICE’s failure to respond unlawful and compelling the immediate disclosure of all records related to the facility’s planning, funding, and environmental impact.

"Through this lawsuit, we are asking the Court to demand the federal government immediately process this FOIA request, order disclosure of all non-exempt records, and prevent ICE from withholding documents," County Attorney Sanchez said. "The Freedom of Information Act requires federal agencies to respond within set time limits and ICE has missed every statutory deadline, leaving the County no choice but to seek judicial intervention."

El Paso County Commissioner for Precinct 3, Iliana Holguin, says the county has been very active and vocal about residents and leaders not wanting this detention facility in the region.

"We've been doing everything possible to gather as much information as we can to share with the public because the federal government has not been forthcoming," said Commissioner Holguin. "We filed this FOIA request, the government is required to comply, but they have not, and one of our options is to file a lawsuit to force compliance and obtain this information."

According to County Attorney Sanchez and Commissioner Holguin, this lawsuit is going to take a long time because these are very slow processes as they try to gather as much information and documentation as they can for this detention facility.

"The Lower Valley Water District, El Paso Water, the Emergency Services District #2—all of these entities—have said that these facilities were meant to be warehouses; they were not intended to house people, much less 8,500," Commissioner Holguin added. "If the federal government had talked to us from the start, we could have discussed these issues early and perhaps convinced them that housing 8,500 people in three warehouses was not a good idea; unfortunately, that didn’t happen, and here we are."

"Ultimately, the county hopes to prevent the federal government from moving forward with this proposal and constructing the detention center," Commissioner Holguin also said. "The City of Socorro has already enacted a moratorium on detention facilities since this one is within their city limits, and the County Attorney's Office helped develop it. We will continue doing everything in our power to stop this facility from opening in El Paso County—this is the main goal of the lawsuit."

El Paso County Judge Ricardo Samaniego also told ABC-7 that the county recognizes how difficult the infrastructure for such a facility would be.

"You're looking at one of the largest detention centers in the country, intended for about 10,000 people, which involves water, toilets, and all kinds of capacity issues. You can't accommodate that many people without showing capacity and staffing requirements," said County Judge Samaniego.

"There is always concern that this administration might ignore rules and act regardless of our input, which makes it clear they don’t respect due process—something so vital," Judge Samaniego said. "Imagine a business planning to operate without fully disclosing environmental or capacity impacts; you wouldn’t expect that, and it’s concerning that they might proceed independently of our input."

"We're allowing a bad situation to happen and our community doesn't just step away from something like that; we feel completely obligated to be the line in the sand. It's bad for the community, it's bad for the economy and right now, we love the fact that we're the veterans capital of the USA and we don't want that to be overshadowed by being the immigration detention center capital of the country," County Judge Samaniego added.

"The state of Texas gives us unfunded mandates, and this is probably going to be one of the biggest unfunded mandates that we'll see because they're (ICE and DHS) putting something there, but they're not giving anything to the county for infrastructure, for handling their medical issues, all of that is going to be a burden," said Judge Samaniego. "When that happens, what are the chances that you have to raise taxes to compensate for the impact that it's going to have? And I know we're very sensitive to taxes, but that's what's going to lead to, how else can we handle such a huge unfunded mandate?"

ABC-7 reached out to DHS and ICE to request comment; we are still awaiting a response.

"The potential of things going wrong is extremely great, because once you put that many people under the same roof, then you're going to have issues, you're going to have medical problems, you're going to have too much closeness, which means somebody gets sick, others are going to get sick," said County Judge Samaniego. "If you were to have any tuberculosis, if you have any measles or anything like that, it could spread very quickly among so many people."