Representing the town of Social Circle in Georgia, Keker, Van Nest & Peters has filed a lawsuit to halt the federal government’s plan to convert a local warehouse into a 10,000-bed immigration detention facility without required environmental review, planning, or coordination with the community. The case is City of Social Circle v. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement; U.S. Department of Homeland Security, et al., No. 3:26-cv-00054-TES, U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia.
Federal law requires DHS and ICE to determine what effects their “mega center” would have on the wellbeing of Social Circle’s residents and the surrounding environment before plans are final. Defendants conducted no such analysis. The result is a proposal that would effectively triple the town’s population and place unsustainable strain on critical infrastructure.
Social Circle’s water and wastewater systems are already operating near capacity. The proposed facility would demand more than a million gallons of additional water per day and generate similar levels of wastewater, far beyond what the 5,000-person town can safely support.
The City is asking the court to stop this project because the federal government failed to comply with its legal obligations under the National Environmental Policy Act, the Administrative Procedure Act, and Georgia’s public nuisance law.
The City of Social Circle is represented by Adam Lauridsen, Hamilton Jordan, Julie Hunter, Aseem Mehta, and Sonja Riley-Swanbeck.
Background: Social Circle is a municipality primarily located in Walton County, Georgia. It was incorporated in 1869. Located about 50 miles east of Atlanta, Social Circle spans 11.2 square miles and is home to about 5,000 residents. On February 3, 2026, Defendants DHS and ICE purchased a commercial warehouse at 1365 East Hightower Trail in Social Circle with the intention of converting it into an immigration detention “mega center” housing 10,000 people with 2,500 proposed staff.