SOCIAL CIRCLE, Ga.—For weeks, Social Circle residents have kept an eye on the possibility that a warehouse could be purchased by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for a detention facility. Now, it's no longer a rumor.

Citing “multiple sources,” the city of Social Circle announced Sunday via Facebook that the 1-million square-foot warehouse at the intersection of East Hightower Trail and Social Circle Parkway has in fact been sold to ICE.

Suspected locally for weeks as the likely site of a proposed ICE detention facility that could hold up to 8,500 people awaiting deportation, the warehouse was recently taken off the lists of available properties maintained by PNK Group, a New York-based industrial developer, and Binswanger, a global commercial real estate agency also associated with the property. 

“PNK no longer owns the facility; ICE is now the owner,” the city announced Sunday on the City of Social Circle, Georgia page on Facebook. 

Beyond that, the Facebook post noted that city officials “will continue to monitor developments and will share confirmed information with the public as it becomes available.” 

There was no major activity at the warehouse early Sunday evening as word of the sale to ICE was spreading. A gray vehicle topped with a flashing white light was parked a couple of hundred yards down the Social Circle Parkway entrance to the warehouse, but no other activity could be seen from the parkway or East Hightower Trail. 

Social Circle Mayor David Keener said Sunday evening that he would be meeting with Social Circle City Manager Eric Taylor on Monday to talk about next steps for the city. 

Since learning that the Social Circle Parkway warehouse was among sites across the country being considered for ICE detention centers, city officials have insisted that Social Circle does not have the water and sewer infrastructure, nor the emergency services personnel, to serve a facility that would nearly triple the city’s current population of 5,415 people. 

Efforts by the city to contact state and federal officials for information and to register concerns about the ICE detention center plan in Social Circle have not been particularly successful. Keener said Sunday that the city is still waiting to hear from anyone in government with regard to the ICE detention center plan. 

U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff (D) issued a joint statement with Keener some days ago stating that “(a) proposed ICE detention facility is not right for Social Circle, and the City of Social Circle does not support it. We are urging the Administration to abandon this plan, which risks overwhelming the City’s resources and more than tripling its population.” 

In addition, the city learned earlier this month from U.S. Rep. Mike Collins (R), whose district includes Social Circle, that the property was then under contract for purchase. 

Saying that he is “aligned with the mission” of ICE, Collins has asked the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, of which ICE is a part, to continue evaluating the effects of the facility on Social Circle to avoid negative impacts on the city. 

Other local officials, such as Newton County commissioners LeAnne Long (R) and Stan Edwards (R), have also spoken out in opposition to the proposed facility

In an interview that aired Sunday on CNN, Taylor, asked if he had a message for the federal government on behalf of the city, said, “Call us. Call us. We've been trying to get somebody on the phone since the day after Christmas.” 

The day after Christmas was shortly after the city learned, via a Washington Post report, that Social Circle had been included in a draft proposal for expanding ICE detention facilities across the country. 

Also working to gather information on the detention center now apparently coming to Social Circle – media reports have indicated it could be in operation as soon as April – is the One Circle Community Coalition, a group working for “transparency, responsible stewardship, and long-term planning that ensures the well-being of all our citizens.” 

On Sunday, the coalition’s John Miller, a Social Circle business owner actively involved in community affairs, said the group was planning Monday to press its efforts to get a meeting with Collins. 

Other plans are in the works, Miller said, but he did not provide specifics. 

Prayers at Friendship Park 

Both Miller and Keener were at a Sunday event in downtown Social Circle’s Friendship Park during which nearly three dozen people offered prayers for the community. 

Arranged by Raine Boyd, a three-year resident of the city who got to know many of the town’s people while working at a hardware store in the city, the event wasn’t specifically aimed at news of the warehouse sale – it was arranged well before the city announced the sale on Facebook – but it was a clear subtext for the event. 

After hearing the news that an ICE detention center could be in the city’s future, Boyd said, she found herself and her friends asking, “What now?” 

“The ‘what now’ is to pray,” Boyd said as she gathered the group in a large circle around her. She said she hoped Sunday’s event would not be the first community prayer session, calling prayer “the purest for of worship we can offer to our Father.” 

“We do not know what the future holds,” Boyd said, “but we can trust God.” 

In offering a prayer for President Donald Trump and his administration across the entire federal government, Boyd invoked the Bible verse 1 Thessalonians 5:23, which reads, “May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 

Boyd went on to offer a general prayer for elected officials, asking God to “give them charity and an ear to hear our hearts.” 

As she closed out the half-hour of prayer, Boyd asked that the people in attendance “take what we prayed today and put hands and feet to that action.” 

John Harlan, a five-year Social Circle resident who participated in the prayer circle, had high hopes for the event in connection with the community’s concerns over the ICE detention facility. 

“Whenever you invoke God, mountains can be moved, seas can be parted,” he said, as he called Social Circle “a great little city, and we don’t want to see it spoiled.” 

Harlan also noted that people often turn to God as a last resort in troubling situations, but said that with Sunday’s event, “I think we are running to him as a first resort.” 

Managing Editor Evan Newton contributed to this report.