Woodbury residents are making their opposition known to the Washington County Board of Commissioners after the Washington Post reported the federal government was considering locating an ICE detention center in the city, just east of St. Paul.
Those proposals were first reported back in December, but concern about it has ramped up with a heavy presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in Minnesota.
County Commissioner Karla Bigham talked about how residents feel about it with Vineeta Sawkar on the WCCO Morning News Wednesday.
"People really are afraid of the conditions that a detention center would have," Bigham said. "They expressed their concern about the image and the treatment."
According to initial reports, the center would use an abandoned warehouse building in Woodbury. The 500,000 square foot building is currently for sale, and is located just off I-94. The Washington Post reports it could hold as many as 1,500 detainees.
Bigham says there has been no contact between county or city officials with the federal government about a potential ICE detention center, but she says no one on the county board supports the idea.
"The issue is that we're not getting the information, and then on top of it, it's blatantly clear that no one wants it in Washington County," she adds.