SOCIAL CIRCLE, Ga. — In a move with clear potential implications for federal planning of a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center in Social Circle that could house as many as 8,500 detainees, U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Georgia),announced Thursday that he is cosponsoring a bill that would require written approval from affected local governments, and the affected state governments, before the federal government can open ICE detention facilities.

In addition, according to a Thursday news release from Ossoff’s office, the bill would require the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), under which ICE operates, “to notify relevant Congressional committees before moving forward with plans and require a public comment period.”

According to the news release, the Respect for Local Communities Act, introduced by New Hampshire Democratic Sens. Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan “would prevent the federal government from beginning the construction, acquisition, or renovation of any new ICE detention or processing centers without securing consent from local officials and meeting certain requirements, including conducting and making public engineering, environmental, (and) economic impact assessments.”

The proposed legislation comes after officials in Social Circle - and elsewhere that ICE detention facilities are being planned - have raised concerns about the process used by the federal government to choose locations for detention centers, buying and making plans to renovate existing private warehouses for purposes of housing as many as 8,500 detainees awaiting deportation to their home countries.

In Social Circle, officials have been particularly critical of a DHS analysis that showed significant misunderstanding of the city’s water, sewer and emergency services infrastructure for serving a proposed 8,500-detainee facility in a 1-million-square-foot warehouse at the intersection of Social Circle Parkway and East Hightower Trail. An 8,500-detainee facility would nearly triple the city’s population of slightly under 5,500 people. The warehouse was recently purchased by the federal government for more than $128 million.

“For months, the Social Circle community has been clear in its opposition to this administration’s proposed ICE detention facility, which local leaders have warned risks overwhelming the city’s infrastructure,” Ossoff noted in his news release. “Yet despite clear local opposition, this administration’s plans and intentions have been shrouded in secrecy without any local input. This bill will require the federal government to get local agreement before building such facilities.”

The news release also quotes Social Circle Mayor David Keener, who said his city “… remains strongly opposed to ICE’s proposed detention facility, which risks overwhelming our infrastructure and more than tripling our population. ICE and DHS’ failures to communicate with us about these plans has made the situation even worse and created months of havoc.”

The proposed legislation, Keener added, “… would ensure our community has a voice in this process and cannot be ignored.”

The legislative proposal comes just days after DHS indicated it was reviewing the already completed purchases of warehouses across the country, which would include the Social Circle facility, and has paused purchases of any additional warehouses for use as detention facilities, as part of a transition in leadership of the agency.

That action came after Markwayne Mullin, a former Oklahoma senator tapped by President Donald Trump to become DHS secretary after Trump’s dismissal of former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, testified in a Senate confirmation hearing that communication with cities where detention centers are planned is important.

Mullin was confirmed as DHS secretary with a 54-45 vote, with Ossoff and Georgia’s other senator, Democrat Rev. Raphael Warnock, voting against Mullin’s confirmation. Warnock visited Social Circle recently, where he got a tour of the city’s water treatment and wastewater treatment facilities, and visited an elementary school located less than a mile from the warehouse site.

According to a transcript of the confirmation hearing, Mullin said, “ … realistically, most municipalities don’t have the capacity in their infrastructure for waste and water.”

“So it’s important that we’re talking to the communities,” Mullin added. “And if we’re having additional needs, we can work with the cities, we can work the municipalities. But we should always communicate with them.”

Mullin also told senators at the Senate Homeland and Government Affairs Committee’s confirmation hearing, “We got to protect the homeland and we’re going to do that, but obviously we want to work with community leaders. We want to be good partners … .”

Like Social Circle’s mayor, City Manager Eric Taylor had positive comments on the bill, with the caveat that it hasn’t yet been passed by Congress.

“We support it,” Taylor said of the proposed Respect for Local Communities Act. “Anything that’s going to require that amount of work should require some amount of coordination with the local government from the front end.”

According to Taylor, nothing is happening currently at the Social Circle warehouse.

“There’s not a thing going on,” he said.

A quick drive by the warehouse on Thursday morning confirmed that nothing was happening at the site, with the exception of a couple of vehicles parked at the Social Circle Parkway entrance to the facility. Those vehicles have been a regular presence at the warehouse, apparently guarding its main entrance.

In his Thursday news release, Ossoff noted that he has been working with the city since January – local officials learned that Social Circle was being considered as a potential ICE detention center site from a Dec. 24 Washington Post story – to address the issue.

In January, along with Keener and other local leaders, Ossoff brought the city’s concerns to top leadership at DHS and ICE, urging prompt contact with Social Circle’s leadership.

And last month, according to the news release, Ossoff and Warnock launched an inquiry with Mullin and Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons urging again that DHS “… abandon its plans and to amplify the Social Circle community’s objections to the facility.”

Specifically, in addition to requiring a written agreement with state and local officials in affected jurisdictions, the bill – which as of Thursday included Arizona Democrat Sens. Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego as cosponsors, in addition to Ossoff – would require that DHS not initiate acquisition, renovation, construction or operation of a facility to be used as a detention center or processing site until a public notice is issued providing 30 days for public comment. The bill would further require that DHS respond to “significant comments” received during the comment period.

Also under the proposed bill, the public notice would be required to describe “the scope of the construction, acquisition, renovation or operation” of a covered facility, and include an “ economic impact analysis and an engineering review that addresses the site or center’s waste exportation, water usage, and electrical demand.”

In addition, the bill would require that the public notice “include information on compliance with federal immigration detention standards, as well as applicable environmental regulations.”