Team USA curler and Minnesota attorney Rich Louhonen criticizes ICE
Rich Louhonen, a USA team curler and Minneosta attorney, used his platform at the Olympics to voice his dissatisfaction with ICE’s unconstitutional practices.
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The fight against the construction of two ICE detention facilities in Georgia has reached Congress with an amendment to the federal funding bill sent by Sen. Raphael Warnock.
HR 7147, the fiscal year 2026 Department of Homeland Security appropriations bill, is being debated on Capitol Hill, with lawmakers calling for additional limits on ICE’s operations before funding DHS.
Warnock, who is serving his first six-year term in the Senate, proposed amendments to the bill that propelled the Georgia debate onto the national stage.
Where are Georgia’s ICE facilities located?
A large warehouse outside Social Circle, Georgia, was purchased by DHS in early February and converted into an ICE detention center that can hold 5,000 to 10,000 people.
The purchase was made over the objections of local leaders who were concerned about the strain on infrastructure and the safety of residents in the small community of 5,000 people.
Rumors that DHS is considering a second location were confirmed when Oakwood leaders told the media that property in town is being considered for a 1,500-bed detention center that would serve as a processing facility for detainees before they are taken to social circles. (This site’s address is Flowery Branch, but it is within Oakwood city limits.)
Oakwood is approximately 80 miles northeast of downtown Atlanta and Social Circle is approximately 70 miles west of Atlanta.
Officials from both cities said they received no advance notice that DHS would be entering the town before the land purchases were made, and that environmental and facility impacts were being discussed without their input.
“We’re already pre-paying for the sewer capacity they’re going to use, but if they go over that, we don’t have the funds for what’s going to be used from that property,” Oakwood City Manager BR White told 11Alive. White also said that once the federal government begins operations on the land, they won’t have to pay property taxes, meaning the revenue to support the new facility will have to come from local residents’ pockets.
The Oakwood Mayor and City Council also said in a statement Wednesday that the facility could cause “economic disruption to Hall County’s large Hispanic community, which is an important part of the workforce that supports local industry, small businesses, and the broader consumer community.”
The detainees are expected to be held at the Social Circle as early as April, and department officials told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the building was sold for $129 million.
ICE already operates a field office in Atlanta and has confirmed plans to add another field office in College Park.
Warnock takes the fight to Washington.
“Georgians want secure borders and they don’t want massive immigrant detention centers in their backyard,” Warnock said in a statement Friday. “If the Trump administration focused on deporting violent criminals, we wouldn’t need new detention centers that burden Georgia’s rural communities.”
The proposed amendments to the federal funding bill would prohibit DHS from “acquiring, constructing, renovating, or expanding ICE detention facilities in Georgia without express legal authorization” and would “require such actions to comply with relevant environmental laws.”
This amendment does not extend the restriction to other states.
If the funding bill is not passed by midnight on February 13, the department will enter a government shutdown. But ICE and Customs and Border Protection’s operations are both funded through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed last year, so the closure likely won’t have a major impact.
According to The Hill, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Coast Guard, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency, and Secret Service will be the most affected.
Eileen Wright is an Atlanta Connect reporter on USA Today’s Deep South Connect team. X Find her at @IreneEWright or email her at ismith@usatodayco.com.
