by Jay Bookman, Georgia Recorder, [This article first appeared in the Georgia Recorder, republished with permission]

February 27, 2026

The largest prison in the state is located in the town of Jackson, in middle Georgia. It’s a state prison with a capacity of 2,200 inmates.

The new prison that the federal government proposes to open in Social Circle, about 40 miles southeast of Atlanta, would house four to five times that many. According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, it will soon store as many as 10,000 people in a converted warehouse in that community, a decision it claims to have made after a “thorough due-diligence process” prior to purchasing the property for five times its assessed value.

But as we’ve been shown repeatedly over the last few months, ICE lies.

It lies a lot.

For example, that “thorough due-diligence process” prior to purchase somehow did not include any communication whatsoever with city officials in Social Circle. That small town of roughly 5,000 people is now expected to provide sewage treatment and other services for the detention camp, but city officials say they simply lack the infrastructure to provide such services.

“Documents provided by the (Department of Homeland Security) indicate this detention facility alone would have a sewage demand of 1,001,683 gallons per day,” Social Circle officials said in a statement last week. “The city’s current wastewater system processes 660,000 gallons a day and is already operating at capacity. It cannot accommodate an increase in usage of this magnitude.”

Water is also a major issue. According to the city, “the total additional water demand required for a facility of this scale simply exceeds what the city’s system is capable of providing. Supplying that volume would require substantial infrastructure expansion, new permitting and significant investment that does not currently exist. When city officials asked whether DHS would provide financial assistance for such upgrades, representatives did not have an immediate answer….”

“To be clear, the city has repeatedly communicated that it does not have the capacity or resources to accommodate this demand, and no proposal presented to date has demonstrated otherwise.”

Yet somehow, DHS says it intends to have that massive new prison staffed, retrofitted and housing thousands of inmates by May or June.

Officials in Oakwood, Georgia, located in Hall County, tell a similar tale. Without warning or consultation, ICE purchased a warehouse in that community to hold as many as 1,600 people as part of a “feeder system” for the “mega” facility in Social Circle.

While expressing support for ICE’s mission, Oakwood officials say they question “the proposed location and the process by which this site was selected, which occurred without consultation, coordination or impact analysis involving any local governing body.”

They also say they have seen “no infrastructure impact studies, including sewer capacity, allocation and long-term system planning” and “no public safety impact studies, including the cost and operational burden on the Oakwood Police Department and other emergency services.”

City officials also cite “economic disruption to Hall County’s large Hispanic community, which is an essential part of the workforce supporting local industries, small businesses and the broader consumer economy. This concern is both economic and human in nature, and it deserves thoughtful consideration.”

ICE doesn’t do “thoughtful consideration” any better than it does truth telling. To the contrary, what we’re witnessing is a bureaucratic manifestation of the same belligerent, arrogant, disrespectful attitude toward the American public that we witnessed recently in the streets of Minneapolis and Chicago, where it has had deadly consequences.

Because ICE and DHS are federal agencies, they aren’t bound by state or local regulations, so local elected officials have little legal leverage. Oakwood officials are urging their residents to ask for assistance from Georgia’s congressional delegation, and to contact ICE directly “to request a pause and full review of the proposed location.”

According to the statement issued by the Oakwood Council and mayor:

“This call to action is measured and constructive. Our goal is not confrontation but collaboration – ensuring that any federal facility affecting our community is evaluated transparently, responsibly and with full consideration of local impacts.”

That should not be too much to ask of a government “of the people, by the people, for the people,” but these days I’m not sure we have that type of government any longer.  We have a government whose first instinct is to get its way by bullying its own citizenry, and if I know my country, it doesn’t tolerate bullies well.

Georgia Recorder is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Georgia Recorder maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jill Nolin for questions: info@georgiarecorder.com.