by Michelle, Moore, Bridge2Blue
In Suffolk, community members are paying careful attention to a proposed ICE facility in their community.
In April 2026, clergy, civic leaders, civil rights advocates, and residents from across Suffolk and greater Hampton Roads rallied against the possible establishment of a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office in a roughly 9,000-square-foot building off Wilroy Road owned by Dr. Johnny Garcia, the founder and CEO of the government contracting firm SimIS, Inc. While the project may be on hold, the coalition of ministers, local leaders, the NAACP, and Latino advocacy groups is wary of the possibility that the project could through Suffolk’s land-use approval process.
Dr. Garcia has said the plan is for office use, not detention. But the community is well aware of ICE’s practice of converting warehouse space into detention centers and repurposing existing facilities to hold detainees. ICE has been working to acquire warehouses to convert into detention facilities, part of a broader plan to dramatically expand detention capacity. Some of those properties have been purchased at prices far above market value. In Maryland, for example, a warehouse appraised at $76.8 million sold to the federal government for $102.4 million in taxpayer money. Reporting has also shown that DHS used unusual contracting methods to move quickly and with limited public visibility, buying properties and awarding retrofit contracts before communities had a meaningful chance to respond.
And this expansion is a highly lucrative business. The country’s largest detention facilities are run by two private, for-profit prison companies, GEO Group and CoreCivic. Both reported more than $2 billion in 2025 revenue, and reporting tied those gains to growing ICE detention numbers and new contracts—all funded taxpayers.
Suffolk’s concern is grounded in what ICE is doing across the country and in the harm it continues to cause to ordinary people. Americans have not forgotten the killings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis by federal immigration agents, a horrifying reminder that ICE the cost of ICE operations in American neighborhoods. More recently, on May 26 in New Jersey, ICE agents used pepper spray on Sen. Andy Kim and demonstrators outside Delaney Hall, a detention facility operated by GEO Group. After later gaining access, Kim described the deeply troubling conditions of detainees, including a pregnant woman who said she was not receiving needed care and a man with stage-three lung cancer who said he was not getting treatment. Taken together, the incidents in Minneapolis and New Jersey make clear that ICE remains a danger not only to detainees, but also to peaceful protesters, bystanders, and the public.
And the human toll within the facilities continues to climb. Since the start of Trump’s mass deportation campaign, more than 40 people have died in immigration detention in an extraordinarily short period, and federal data and reporting showed deaths in ICE custody had already reached record levels this year.
Virginia is not insulated from any of this. Reported analysis of federal data found that ICE made nearly 11,000 arrests in the Commonwealth between Trump’s 2025 inauguration and early March 2026, including 13 children under age 6.
That is why Suffolk matters.
Residents understand that a building labeled “office space” can be reshaped once ICE has established itself, and ICE operations have escalated into local neighborhoods.. Suffolk city residents do not want ICE operations near schools, hospitals, houses of worship, or shopping areas. They do not want their community folded into ICE’s detention-and-deportation pipeline.
And Suffolk is not alone. Across the country and in Virginia, communities are pushing back against ICE’s warehouse strategy. Local resistance has delayed or paused projects, lawsuits have forced environmental and procedural review, and there are reports that some previously purchased warehouse properties may be sold after strong backlash.
Suffolk organizers are not taking anything for granted. The apparent pause in Garcia’s plans is a small but meaningful win, and community members are seeking expert guidance, so they are prepared if this proposal reappears before the Suffolk City Council.
This is a community of hard-working people, families, and business owners who know what happened in Minnesota and New Jersey—and they want to keep ICE and the GEO group far away.
