# ICE quietly detains migrants in New Jersey warehouse > Despite a court order banning its use, the Roxbury facility appears to have held people during summer raids, raising questions about oversight. - Title: ICE quietly detains migrants in New Jersey warehouse · NPR - Summary: Despite a court order banning its use, the Roxbury facility appears to have held people during summer raids, raising questions about oversight. NPR found… - Keywords: ice, immigration detention, roxbury new jersey, trump administration, mass deportation, warehouse detention, dover new jersey, court order, homeland security, immigration enforcement, politics, news - Source: NPR — https://npr.org/2026/10/08/nx-s1-5983441/ice-warehouses-new-jersey-roxbury - Published: 2026-10-08T00:00:00+00:00 - Read time: 4 min - Topics: ice, immigration detention, roxbury new jersey, trump administration, mass deportation, warehouse detention, dover new jersey, court order, homeland security, immigration enforcement, politics, news ## A billion-dollar detention plan In early twenty twenty-six, the Department of Homeland Security bought eleven warehouses to convert into I C E detention facilities, spending about a billion dollars on the project as part of President Trump's mass deportation efforts. ## The plan faced fierce backlash The warehouse conversion plan faced fierce backlash and legal challenges from residents and immigrant advocates. It was largely abandoned, and in several sites including Roxbury, the government is legally forbidden by court order from converting them to detention facilities pending environmental assessments. ## A contractor describes pressure A government contractor told NPR that at a meeting with a D H S deputy director, his company proposed more humane F E M A-style camps in Texas. The idea was rejected, he says, because of what Stephen Miller wanted. ## Miller wanted facilities to be cruel The contractor says he was told Stephen Miller did not want comfortable or humane facilities. Miller wanted it to be cruel, the contractor says, and this was stated to the D H S director and deputy director. > Miller did not want the facilities that were comfortable. He did not want facilities that were humane. ## The White House denies the claim White House spokesperson Lauren Bis said the contractor's comments were false hearsay from someone who has never met Stephen Miller. Bis said Miller has never made remarks about wanting worse detention conditions. ## The plan became a boondoggle Michael Wriston, a former military intelligence analyst who co-founded Project SaltBox, says the warehouse plan quickly became an absolute boondoggle. The administration wanted dramatic imagery for social media but did not ensure compliance with environmental policy. > It very quickly became an absolute boondoggle. ## Leadership change shifted the approach When D H S Secretary Kristi Noem departed in March, her replacement Markwayne Mullin sought less showy immigration crackdowns. Today Homeland Security is selling several warehouses but still holding on to a few, including Roxbury. ## Strategic locations fill detention gaps Homeland Security is keeping warehouses in Hagerstown, Maryland, Surprise, Arizona, and Roxbury, New Jersey because these locations are critical to I C E's deportation agenda. They fill gaps where I C E lacks a robust detention network. ## A historic surge in arrests Over the summer, there was a historic surge in I C E arrests, with around one hundred thousand people detained in July and August. In New Jersey, rumors began circulating that the Roxbury warehouse was being used for detention. ## Neighbors report suspicious activity Project N I N J A, a coalition opposing I C E detention expansion, says several neighbors reported vehicles in caravans speeding up the road to the Roxbury warehouse. Dover Council Member Sandra Wittner received messages from residents claiming people were being held there. ## A witness follows a detained person On September fourth, a woman saw a raid in Dover and followed a car carrying detained people up Route forty-six toward the warehouse. She took video as she trailed the vehicle onto the woodsy road leading to the facility. ## She was followed and filmed After waiting near the warehouse, the woman says a white Dodge Durango began circling her on a public sidewalk. Then a black Tahoe did the same. She says the experience was intimidating and made her fearful for her community. > And then maybe five minutes after that, a white Dodge Durango started kind of circling around me. ## A daughter recognizes her father A woman in Dover saw raid videos circulating on social media and recognized her father being cornered by masked agents. At eight twenty-five a m, she received a call from him saying he was handcuffed in some kind of jail. > That's my father. ## A deported man describes detention A man deported to Honduras told NPR he was picked up on Friday, September fourth on his way to work. Agents loaded him into a van and took him to Roxbury, where he and nine other men were handcuffed in the parking lot for several hours. > I was picked up on my way to work, on Friday, Sept. 4. The agents loaded me into a van. They took us to Roxbury. ## D H S does not confirm or deny In a statement to NPR, D H S did not respond to questions about whether it was holding people at the Roxbury location. It said only that D H S upholds strict standards and that immigrants can choose to leave detention by being deported. ## Legal experts see a loophole Harvard professor Andrew Mergen, a former attorney with the U S Department of Justice, says I C E may not technically violate the court order by using the space for detention without formally converting it into a detention center. ## The community feels betrayed Mergen says the situation shows the limitations of using environmental claims to prevent detention. The administration appears to have used the space for detention while claiming it was not formally converting the facility, he says. > The community is acting here to prevent people from being detained. And the administration seems to have cleverly elided that intention. ## Wittner demands federal oversight Dover Council Member Sandra Wittner says Congress members must conduct an oversight visit immediately. She says the state must aggressively pursue its investigation and demand access to the warehouse to see what happened. > We need our Congress members to conduct an oversight visit yesterday, quite honestly. ## Key takeaway NPR found evidence that ICE used a Roxbury, New Jersey warehouse to detain migrants over the summer despite a court order forbidding its conversion into a detention facility pending environmental assessments.