Michael Wriston, of Project Salt Box, Made a Recent Appearane on CABLE Evening News.
These Signs Still are in the Windows of Numerous Businesses in the Portland Area – and With Good Reason.
Last month Attorney General Kris Mayes filed suit in federal court to block the conversion of a warehouse in Surprise, Arizona into an immigration detention facility according to a press release from Michael Wriston of Project Salt Box a nonprofit issued on April 24, 2026. This suit marks the fourth such challenge brought by a state against the federal government’s warehouse detention program on enrivonmental and procedural grounds.
The complant, filed in the US District Court for the District of Arizone, names Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin, the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons as defendants. It asks the court to declare the warehouse acquisition unlawful and to permanently enjoin ICE from converting or operating the site.
The filing arrived in court nine days after a federal judge in Maryland halted a similar conversion in Williamsport, finding that DHS had attempted to shoehorn a large-scale detention project into environmental exclusions designed for minor renovations. Courts in Michigan and New Jersey are weighing comparable claims.
On January 22, 2026, DHS sent a consultation letter to the Arizona State Historic Preservation Office regarding a proposed acquisition in Surprise. On day later, before the preservation office had received the letter, ICE purchased the property for $70,035,000. DHS did not consult with or notify the City of Surprise before the purchase. At the first city council meeting after the acquisition was announced, residents spoke in opposition for nearly five hours, pushing a 7:00 pm meeting past midnight, according to the complaint.
The facility, a 418,400 square foot industrial distribution faciilty at 13290 W. Sweetwater Avenue, was built to be leased to up to four commercial tenants — and, as the term “warehouse” suggests, was not designed to house people. Directly across the street Rinchem Co LLC operates a 123,000 square foot hazardous material storage faciity containing chemicals used in semiconductor production. Rinchem filed a Risk Management Plan for the facility on January 1, 2026, three weeks before ICE purchased the warehouse next door. According to the complaint, the RMP does not account for the presence of a large captive population nearby and Arizone is unaware of any risk assessment ICE has conducted regarding the two sites proximity. I
The warehouse is also located approximately one mile from Dysart High School which enrolls around 1,400 students and Dysart Middle School, which enrolls around 600. ICE has made no publi mention of either At a press conferene outside the facility, Mayes said students at Dysart High, where roughly 60 percent of students are Hispanic according to state enrollment data, were frightened to walk to school because of the increased ICE presene in the area.
The government has not yet responded to the Arizona complaint, but its filings in the other three cases offer a preview of its likely defense. In each, DHS has argued that modifying an existing building does not trigger the same environmental scrutiny as construting a new one and that questions about water use, wastewater capacity and traffic belong to a LATER stage of the project. In New Jersey, Maryland and MIchigan, the government argued those projected harms were speculative — contingent on future decisions not yet made.
The state is asking the court to vacate the acquisition decision and permanently block construction and operation.
Project Salt Box is committed to transparency and accountability regarding the Department of Homeland Security’s expanding footprint. We weloome information, documents and data from sources with firsthand knowledge of agency contracts and capabilities. To better protect your identity, do not contact us from a work-issued device or network. We seek information of public interest, but we do not want and cannot accept classified information.
For background information on DHS detention projects reported by Project Salt Box, please visit posts herein dated April 1, 2026 and on March 24,2026.