Roxbury ICE Detention Plan Revived Despite Court Freeze

The Roxbury ICE detention plan in New Jersey is back on, and it is colliding with a federal court order that was supposed to keep it frozen. The Department of Homeland Security has told New Jersey and Roxbury Township that it “had decided to proceed with pursuing a detention facility at the Roxbury site,” according to a Nov. 6 status report the state filed in federal court in Newark. The move tests how far a court order can hold back the administration’s push to turn warehouses into immigration jails.

It is the first time DHS has told the plaintiffs it intends to go forward, six months after agreeing in court not to start converting the building until an environmental review is finished. The same week, NPR reported that the administration is pressing ahead with converting two large warehouses into detention centers despite local protests.

What the May order allows, and what it forbids

ICE bought the roughly 470,000-square-foot warehouse on Route 46 for $129.3 million in a sale that closed Feb. 19, NJ.com reported from deed records. New Jersey and Roxbury sued ICE in March, and on May 12 the parties agreed to a court-entered order that bars DHS from “undertaking any activities at the Roxbury warehouse site for purposes of converting it into a detention center” until it completes an environmental assessment and the state has a chance to challenge it, Patch and the Jersey Vindicator reported. Basic maintenance and security work remains allowed.

That review is required by the National Environmental Policy Act, which makes a federal agency study a project’s environmental effects before committing to it. If DHS concludes there is no significant impact, New Jersey can challenge that finding in court, the same route San Antonio is taking in its fight over a planned ICE warehouse.

According to the state’s filing, as reported by NorthJersey.com and Patch, DHS’s lawyers said “money has been obligated for maintenance, design of ICE’s preferred alternative, and the NEPA analysis of that design.” They could not confirm a published report that the agency had signed a conversion contract. Deputy Solicitor General Shankar Duraiswamy wrote that if DHS “has in fact entered into a contract to convert the Roxbury site into a detention center,” that raises “significant concerns” about compliance with the order, the Jersey Vindicator reported.

The line between planning and building

The dispute is likely to turn on a narrow question: whether design work and contracting count as “activities … for purposes of converting” the warehouse. DHS has a reasonable argument that it must design a project before it can study that design’s environmental effects, and NEPA itself expects agencies to analyze a specific proposal. The state’s counter is that a binding commitment to a contractor before the review is done would turn the assessment into a formality. Courts applying NEPA have long treated irreversible commitments of resources before a review as a red flag, so what any contract actually obligates DHS to do will matter more than whether one exists.

New Jersey has signaled it is ready to escalate. “If the Trump Administration is violating that order, we will take action to ensure that order is respected,” Michael Symons, a spokesman for Attorney General Jennifer Davenport, told NJ.com. Roxbury Mayor Shawn Potillo said the township “remains opposed to the facility.” DHS does not comment on pending litigation, NorthJersey.com reported.

This is not the first reversal. DHS said June 29 that it would not proceed at Roxbury, then changed course on July 11, according to NorthJersey.com. Roxbury’s township attorney has said the Justice Department acknowledged that detainees were processed in the site’s parking lot, a use earlier coverage of the court freeze examined.

Why Roxbury ICE detention matters beyond New Jersey

Warehouses offer ICE space quickly in a crowded detention system. About 32,622 people were in ICE detention at the end of September 2026, according to data compiled by TRAC at Syracuse University. Warehouse plans in New Jersey and Texas have drawn lawsuits built on environmental law rather than immigration law, because NEPA gives states and cities procedural hooks that immigration statutes do not. San Antonio’s suit over a 1,500-bed warehouse follows the same template.

The administration has framed the Roxbury site as an economic benefit as well as an enforcement need: Deputy Assistant DHS Secretary Lauren Bis has pointed to 1,300 jobs and $39.2 million in tax revenue, NJ.com reported. Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s office has said the facility would not make New Jersey safer.

The likely next steps are a motion by New Jersey to enforce the May order or a demand that DHS produce any contract, and continued status reports to the court. Sens. Cory Booker and Andy Kim have introduced bills aimed at blocking warehouse detention, NJ.com reported, and detention funding is likely to surface in the new Congress’s first appropriations fight. Opponents have scheduled a rally for Saturday, Nov. 14.

This article is for general information and is not legal advice.

Sources

Vasanth Vaidyanathan, Esq.

Administrator

Vasanth Vaidyanathan is an immigration attorney with over 20 years of experience focused exclusively on U.S. immigration and nationality law. He holds an LL.M. from California Western School of Law, San Diego and advises individuals and businesses on employment and family-based immigration matters, including H-1B, PERM, EB categories, and adjustment of status. He has also been a featured speaker at immigration seminars across the U.S. To reach Vasanth visit: https://www.vnathan.com/

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