ICE has quietly used this warehouse as a detention facility all summer, neighbors say
ROXBURY, N.J. — On a warm morning, on Sept. 4, masked immigration agents rolled into Dover, New Jersey.
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agents → use → Dover
Footage of the raids rippled across social media, sent people into hiding and reignited rumors that had been circulating for months: Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were taking people to a nearby warehouse.
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agents → ripple → warehouse
The warehouse in Roxbury, New Jersey, was one piece of a billion dollar plan by the Department of Homeland Security to detain migrants as part of President Trump's mass deportation efforts.
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warehouse → detain → efforts
That plan to convert warehouses into detention centers faced fierce backlash and legal challenges from residents and immigrant advocates.
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plan → convert → residents
It was largely abandoned and in several sites, including Roxbury, the government is legally forbidden by a court order from converting them to a detention facility, pending environmental assessments.
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government → abandon → assessments
But an NPR investigation has found signs that the New Jersey facility is being used.
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facility → find → signs
And the State's Attorney General says they are looking into similar reports.
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they → say → reports
Contractor says he was told Stephen Miller wanted facilities to be "cruel" and "painful"
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facilities → say → ?
In early 2026, Homeland Security bought 11 warehouses to turn into ICE detention facilities.
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Security → buy → facilities
They spent about a billion dollars on these.
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They → spend → these
NPR spoke to an official at a government contractor whose company was approached to convert several of the warehouses into ICE facilities.
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company → speak → facilities
He spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation from the government.
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He → speak → government
"No one that we spoke to at DHS was for this idea whatsoever.
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we → speak → idea
The deputy director told us point blank that they had pushed back very hard on it.
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they → tell → it
Everybody knew warehouses are horrible places to put people," he says.
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he → know → people
At a meeting with a deputy director at DHS, he says, his company proposed an alternative: FEMA style camps in Texas that would be more humane.
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that → say → Texas
He says that idea was swiftly shot down.
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idea → say → ?
While White House advisor Stephen Miller was not at the meeting, they were told that this was not what Miller wanted.
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Miller → tell → what
The contractor says his understanding from that meeting was that "Miller did not want the facilities that were comfortable..
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that → say → facilities
He did not want facilities that were humane.
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that → want → facilities
We were told point blank that that was not what the administration wanted."
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administration → tell → what
"Steve Miller certainly seemed to make that point to everyone that he wanted it to be cruel.
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it → seem → everyone
This was what Miller had stated to the DHS at that time, to the DHS director and deputy director.
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Miller → state → director
What surprised me was just how adamant the people were that it was going to happen.
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it → surprise → me
I would say in 25 years of working with the U.S. government, I've never been in that position before."
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I → say → position
In a statement to NPR, White House spokesperson Lauren Bis said the contractor's comments were "false hearsay allegation(s) from someone who has never even met or talked with Stephen Miller."
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who → say → Miller
Bis also said, Miller "has never made any remarks to anyone about wanting illegal aliens to have worse detention facility conditions.
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aliens → say → conditions
The White House did not respond to repeated requests to speak to Miller directly.
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House → respond → Miller
DHS is holding on to the strategically positioned warehouses
Early on, the warehouse plan was met with protests in both conservative and liberal towns.
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plan → hold → towns
Several State's Attorneys General filed lawsuits to halt construction, based on environmental concerns.
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General → file → concerns
"It very quickly became an absolute boondoggle," says Michael Wriston, a former military intelligence analyst who cofounded Project SaltBox, a watchdog group that tracks ICE's expansion.
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that → become → expansion
"It was really about the optics of people being kept in these cages and these large warehouses.
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people → keep → cages
They wanted a lot of what they called B-roll to play on social media, but they didn't do any due diligence of making sure that they conformed with environmental policy or that the construction wouldn't disturb local water tables."
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construction → want → tables
A DHS official who served during Trump's first term, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they feared government retaliation, says that while they were not in the meeting the contractor described to NPR, they had often heard higher ups in the administration wanting to make a point of showcasing difficult conditions immigrants were being held in.
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immigrants → serve → conditions
Then, with the departure of DHS Secretary Kristi Noem in March, there was a shift: her replacement, Secretary Markwayne Mullin, sought to do less showy immigration crackdowns.
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replacement → be → crackdowns
Today, Homeland Security is selling several of the warehouses.
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Security → sell → warehouses
But they're still holding on to a few: including in Hagertstown, Maryland; Surprise, Arizona; and Roxbury New Jersey.
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they → hold → Hagertstown
"These locations are very critical to ICE's deportation agenda," says Wriston, "because they fill in the gap in places where ICE does not have a robust detention network.
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ICE → say → network
They don't have a lot of jails there."
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They → have → jails
They are also located in areas where there are no partnerships with the police who can house detainees in local jails.
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who → locate → jails
…and 65 more, not listed.
The Aporia
