Keker, Van Nest & Peters is representing the small town of Social Circle, Georgia, in filing suit Wednesday against the federal government and its proposal to convert a local warehouse into a 10,000-bed immigration detention facility, a project that would nearly triple the local population and severely strain the area’s infrastructure, Law.com reported.
Social Circle’s complaint alleges that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement violated the National Environmental Policy Act and the Administrative Procedure Act by advancing the proposed “mega-center” detention center without conducting a required environmental review or coordinating with local officials.
The complaint says that “Social Circle’s already-strained utility network cannot support the planned facility,” warning the project could result in “dry taps and raw human waste spills.” Social Circle City Manager Eric Taylor told Georgia Public Broadcasting that the proposed facility could discharge more than one million gallons of sewage per day.
“Our position is the same as it was last month, two months ago, three months ago, in that it's still going to cause significant problems on our water and sewer infrastructure,” he said.
The Social Circle lawsuit follows similar legal challenges to large-scale ICE detention projects in Maryland and Arizona, including a Maryland case that resulted in a preliminary injunction against ICE.
The Keker team on the case includes Adam Lauridsen, Hamilton Jordan, Julie Hunter, Aseem Mehta, and Sonja Riley-Swanbeck.
You can read the Law.com article here (subscription required). You can find more coverage from Georgia Public Broadcasting, CBS News, USA Today, WRDW News, and The Georgia Recorder.