Georgia town’s novel strategy to fight ICE jail plan impresses legal experts
"Town of Social Circle’s complaint invokes ‘public nuisance’ law that scholars say could have impact for other localities
A small Georgia town’s federal lawsuit opposing the Trump administration’s plans to turn a warehouse into one of the largest immigration detention centers in the US has the potential to create a wide impact as it uses novel legal arguments, experts said.
The town of Social Circle’s complaint goes further than other recently filed lawsuits around the same issues, which assert that the US federal government has not carried out environmental impact assessments for proposed detention centers, as required by the National Environmental Policy Act (Nepa).
The town’s lawsuit goes on to allege that the homeland security department and ICE have also violated the federal Administrative Procedures Act (APA) – which “requires reasoned decision-making by federal agencies, including consideration of adversely affected interests and any reasonable alternatives”, according to the complaint.
Additionally, the complaint asserts that locating what ICE has called “megacenters” in the small town of about 5,000 residents would violate Georgia’s “public nuisance” law – meaning it would “harm their health, safety, and wellbeing”.
The approach shows that Social Circle “is willing to pursue a new legal theory to defend their rights, to defend their town”, said Adam Lauridsen, one of the plaintiff’s attorneys.
The innovation may prove important. “It’s significant that this is not just an environmental claim, but also raises the two other types of claims,” said Timothy D Lytton, law professor at Georgia State University. “This can frame placing these facilities in these towns in a different way.”
Samantha Hamilton, senior staff attorney at Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Atlanta, an organization that opposes ICE’s plans, agrees. “Other claims are focusing on Nepa – ‘They skipped a step and need to do an environmental review,’” she said. But the town’s decision to invoke state public nuisance law “reminds the court that communities are part of this discussion. It reminds of the humanity of the people behind this, and is more in step with what the public is saying.”
The complaint, filed in mid-May, is also the first to come from a local jurisdiction and not a state attorney general. Additionally, the small town sits in a county where nearly 75% voted for Trump. States that have sued over the issue in recent months – New Jersey, Michigan, Maryland and Arizona – are all led by Democrats.
Eric Taylor, city manager for Social Circle, told the Guardian “we went the route we had to go”, given that the proposed plans for his town would triple the local population, putting strains on drinking water and sewage, as well as on local police and ambulances.
“It’s pretty rare for a 5,000-person town to go up against the federal government in such a high-profile matter,” Lauridsen said.
“It shows that towns have the power to resist ICE and DHS coming in and building detention centers that will hurt the town and its people,” he added.
Lauridsen pointed to the town’s interactions with the agencies after it became clear that the federal government had purchased a warehouse for $128m in early February – nearly five times its assessed value of $29m last year, Taylor told the Guardian shortly after the sale went through.
The Guardian’s earlier reporting, which is cited in the lawsuit, went on to detail the frustrations of Taylor, the city manager, with obtaining answers from the federal government about his concerns over the proposed project’s impacts on the town.
Taylor said he has only spoken with federal officials once, by phone, for less than an hour – and the concerns remain.
A DHS spokesperson wrote in response to a query: “As with any transition, we are reviewing agency policies and proposals. As Secretary Mullin said in his confirmation hearing: ‘I will work with the community leaders and make sure that we are delivering for the American people what the president set out … We want to work with community leaders. We want to be good partners.’”
ICE did not reply.
“The federal government needs to plan things out and explain what its doing – it can’t just shoot first, explain later,” said Lauridsen, referring to the lawsuit’s APA claim.
Lauridsen said the APA’s “protections are now even more significant and relevant”, and that other local jurisdictions “can invoke their rights under the APA to force the government to follow the law – even in other areas outside immigration”.
Allison Gill, a former high-level official at the Department of Veterans Affairs who became known for her podcast Mueller, She Wrote, invoked the APA in a lawsuit she filed against the Department of Justice, over the Trump administration’s $1.776bn “anti-weaponization fund”.
As for public nuisance claims, Lauridsen noted that they are more commonly filed against corporations, and that he expects the federal government to assert it has immunity against such a claim.
Still, he said, the law exists for “people to protect themselves from someone coming in and hurting their environment and way of life”.
Lytton of Georgia State noted that while the case may take a while to be resolved in the courts, its overall approach may have a more immediate impact. “People file lawsuits to change government policy or decisions,” he said. “So it’s not just a matter of winning – if it attracts public interest, that can help [plaintiffs] meet their goals in other ways.”
Taylor pointed to localities around the nation where similar plans for detention centers are afoot.
“We’re all in the same boat … and we need to be learning from each other. If we’re successful, I hope it helps other communities down the line,” he said."
