Many Trump voters are regretting their decisions, but for a town in Georgia, well, they still support Trump, but that doesn’t mean they approve of his policies, including a plan to build a huge ICE detention center in their small city. The proposed ICE detention center is set to house almost 10,000 detainees, outnumbering the small town’s 5,000-strong population. The notion has since caused outrage among the pro-Trump locals.
Social Circle, Georgia, is the small city in question, located roughly 45 miles east of Atlanta. Residents were told this week that a massive warehouse facility capable of holding up to 9,000 detainees could be built or converted within their borders, according to a report by The Washington Post. The proposal is part of a broader Trump administration plan to convert large industrial buildings into regional immigration detention hubs.
Among the most vocal disapprovers is 57-year-old Victor Crowley, who is adamant that, “I support the president, but I don’t want this,” transcript courtesy of Washington Post. The plan, outlined in internal ICE documents and federal contracting materials, envisions seven major detention complexes holding between 5,000 and 10,000 people each, supported by 16 smaller feeder sites.
Officials have thus compared the network to an Amazon-style logistics system, designed to speed deportations by concentrating detainees in large centralized facilities. Still, residents raised concerns about whether the town’s limited infrastructure could handle a facility nearly twice the size of its population in a recent town meeting full of rants. Others objected to the proposed site’s proximity to an elementary school.
People online think they should reap what they sow
It appears the reaction and staunch opposition of Social Circle residents has become the subject of virality and ridicule online. Some have mocked their political leanings, suggesting that they voted for something like this and shouldn’t really oppose it, “I like the idea of Auschwitz, just not my backyard,” according to a Reddit user’s analogy.
“Why the [expletive] are they mad? These racist [expletive] wanted this. They weren’t afraid to vote for this, but can’t take the consequences of it,” rants another commenter. Georgia, for the record, voted nearly 73 percent in favor of Trump in the 2024 election. At the moment, the ICE detention facility is still in limbo, and the residents and Social Circle authorities are unsure whether it will be built, but they’re still worried regardless.
Apparently, there’s already a 1.2 million sq. ft. warehouse in the region, which could then be converted for the facility. Some people have still called out the possible contradiction for Social Circle’s opposition to the ICE detention center, “Wonder how many of them were all excited and giddy by the idea of Alligator Alcatraz.”
