Senators question Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem during tense hearing
Kristi Noem is facing pointed questions from the Senate during a tense hearing about the number of DHS employees, the targets of immigrant arrests and the Minneapolis shooting investigation.
It started with a phone call from a Washington Post reporter.
When the phone rang a few weeks ago, officials in Oakwood, Georgia, about 80 miles northeast of Atlanta, had just heard that a 10,000-bed Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center was coming to another northern Georgia town.
A reporter asked if he knew Oakwood was on the shortlist for an ICE processing facility. No, this was the first time they heard about it, officials told him.
In the weeks that followed, the city of fewer than 6,000 people prepared to convert two warehouses within its boundaries into ICE processing facilities. As far as they knew, the detainees were to be taken to Oakwood after their arrest and spend several days there before being transferred to a larger, longer-term detention facility in Social Circle, Georgia.
Oakwood officials estimate the cost will be more than $2 million, as water and sewer capacity will be tested and police will require additional training. As of February 27, the town has not received any communication from the Department of Homeland Security.
DHS says ‘no negative impact’ of ICE facility — city disagrees
B.R. White, Oakwood’s city planner, said the only communication he received from Washington was from Congressman Andrew Clyde, whose district includes Georgia’s 9th District, which includes Oakwood.
Clyde said in a February statement that his office received information from ICE, which was passed on to Oakwood, identifying two warehouses on Atlanta Highway as suitable for detention processing facilities.
“The identification and fit-for-purpose of each facility included an engineering review of existing utilities and facility infrastructure. The engineering team reviewed the proposed uses and capacities for electricity, water usage, waste export, and life safety building systems (fire protection systems) water supply capabilities,” Clyde shared. “The final selection of the facility was based on the determination that there would be no harmful effects.”
But White says the costs are unavoidable and absolutely detrimental to Oakwood.
“I don’t know (who’s going to pay the utility bills),” he said in an interview with USA Today. “Oakwood does not have a wastewater treatment facility. We have pre-purchased capacity from three other jurisdictions and have secured maximum capacity from each jurisdiction through agreements.”
Additional costs to increase the jail’s sewage treatment capacity will exceed $2 million, White said. That’s money the city doesn’t need to spend.
The city of Oakwood receives about $9 million a year in ad valorem taxes, which means nearly a third of the city’s revenue must go directly to paying for water and sewer services for ICE detention centers, the construction of which the city had no control over.
“We’re at a predicament, because once the state or federal government buys the land, there are limits to what they can do to advance the point, and one of them is utility costs,” White said. “But they don’t have it until we approve it.”
Plan for the “worst case scenario”
The city’s costs go beyond utility bills.
Oakwood expects to lose about $771,072 in tax revenue because the federal government owns the warehouse rather than a private company. Other taxing entities in the region will also be affected.
The city published the estimate on its website on February 24th.
The city also plans to spend about $215,000 on new training for police officers to deal with possible protests, as well as equipment for the police station.
“We have to plan for the worst-case scenario if what happened in Minnesota happens here,” White said. The city is “preparing for any type of protest or civil disobedience.”
White said he expects people from across the region to voice their opinions on Oakwood, but said the small police force is unprepared if the situation turns physical. They hope to undergo training with state and government agency partners in the coming weeks to better support communities if protests begin.
“Our official position is that we are here for the safety of the citizens of Oakwood and the security of their rights to freedom of speech and assembly,” White said. “So if they go through the proper paperwork and everything, we will do everything we can to make them safe.”
But money is tight. Oakwood’s budget runs from calendar year to calendar year, so when the city learned of the construction of the ICE facility, the 2026 budget had just been approved, and officials now have to “squeeze the budget” to meet the police department’s needs.
“Even if (DHS) were to make a statement saying, ‘Oh yeah, the whole community benefits,’ the city of Oakwood doesn’t benefit at all,” White said. “You can massage these numbers and put them out any way you want. That’s what I suggested. Well, if (DHS) is going to come up with numbers like that and you know it’s right, make it Oakwood specific. Make it South Hall (County) specific. And, you know, I don’t think they can do that.”
Eileen Wright is an Atlanta Connect reporter for USA Today’s Deep South Connect team. X Find her at @IreneEWright or email her at ismith@usatodayco.com.
