Over the past few months, we have seen an increase in DHS seeking to buy warehouses to store individuals, creating concentration camps reminiscent of Japanese internment and other such atrocities. They have been seeking to buy these warehouses all across the nation, from New Jersey to Kansas and from Texas to Georgia. Community pushback has deterred a lot of these purchases, but others, even amidst community pushback, have gone through. An example of this is Social Circle in Georgia. Now, DHS is seeking to purchase another warehouse in Georgia. I am against this purchase, but I know that our representative, Andrew Clyde, is all for it. This is a letter I sent to Clyde expressing my opposition to the sale. There are countless organizations and people on the ground right now protesting this facility.

I am writing, as one of your constituents, to ask you not to move forward with the proposed ICE detention center in our district. While I agree that we need sensible immigration policies and guidelines, and that previous administrations, from Clinton and Bush to Obama and Biden, have deported large numbers of undocumented immigrants and even separated families, the current administration’s blatant disregard for the constitution and bloated budgetary allocations to ICE warrants standing up and speaking out. The administration, in its budget bill, which you voted in favor of, provided ICE with a. 265% increase in funding, making it 62% higher than the budget for the federal prison system, and higher than the military budgets of Israel, Italy, and other nations.

We have seen the increased violence and blatant disregard of civil liberties enacted by ICE, including assaults and murders and the detaining of United States citizens and even violence against children. We know the administration’s desire to increase detention numbers dramatically, with each warehouse housing anywhere between 1,500–10,000. We know that this does not stem from a desire for safety of law or order, even though that is the language used to obscure the brutality enacted upon individuals, both citizens and non-citizens alike. A large-scale ramp up like this has precedent, especially within the United States. This happened during World War II when our government incarcerated Japanese and Japanese Americans, a wound on our nation’s ideals of liberty and democracy.

In your own comments on this facility, you said, while expressing your full support for the warehouse, that this region “knows the horrors of illegal alien crime all too well. I fully support President Trump in protecting American citizens by detaining and deporting criminal illegals from our communities.” Again, while I agree that we have seen horrific crimes committed by undocumented individuals, we know that your argument is facetious because even of the 400,000 undocumented immigrants that ICE has arrested from January 2025 – January 2026, only 14% have had any charges for violent crimes. Added to that, 40% of those that ICE has taken into custody have no criminal record, while the others have infractions such as traffic tickets or other non-felony offenses. So, the argument of protecting your constituents, of which I am one, from “the horrors of illegal alien crime” is merely a ruse to enact a system of terror against individuals who contribute to your economy and the nation’s economy.

You go on to add, in your comments about the facility, that it will cost $160 million over the first three years to operate. You tout that the facility will have a positive economic impact on the community, supporting “a total of 1,520 jobs during the retrofit and up to 429 jobs each year of operation.” While it may provide those things, what is the economic impact of undocumented immigrants on your state and the nation? How much do they pay into the services, while not benefitting from all of them, that your constituents use? I am sure you have heard the numbers I am about to tell you, but just in case you haven’t heard them, undocumented immigrants contributed over $10.5 billion to your state’s economy and pay, through state and local taxes, over $400 million into the state and local economies. If you want to tout a robust economy, those numbers point the way.

Warehouses such as the one proposed, as we have seen, are not run as merely holding spaces for individuals waiting to be deported. They are essentially concentration camps, with inadequate facilities, guards treating individuals inhumanely, and other problems. Last year saw the highest number of individuals who died while in ICE custody in years, with a total of 36 individuals perishing while in custody. As well, we know that the local government, where the proposed facility is scheduled to be placed, have expressed concern about the facility’s sewage capacity and other items relating to the humane treatment of individuals who you propose to detain within the facility. It is on these notes that I call upon, since you appear, from all I have seen, to be a man of faith, to think about a few of the following things.

First and foremost, I want to ask you to think about how you will answer your children or grandchildren if they ask you, when they look back at the history we are living, what you did. Will you be able to tell them that you acted in a manner that upheld the ideals of this nation, the ideals that all of us are created equal and that we each have the opportunity to pursue life, liberty, and happiness? Will you be able to tell them you looked out for your neighbor and, even if you disagreed with them or thought they were wrong, you recognized their humanity and their inalienable right to exist?

Second, I want to ask you to think about the three specific verses in the Bible and your faith. The first verse comes from Jesus directly as he prepared his disciples for his crucifixion. In the parable of the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25, he told them, when you care for those who need it, you care for me. He said, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for the one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mind, you did for me.”

As well, I call upon you to think about Leviticus 19:33–34 where God says, “When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the Lord your God.” Abraham was a refugee and an immigrant. The Israelites were refugees and immigrants. Jesus was a refugee and an immigrant.

But, you may say, what about Paul’s admonition in Romans 13 for us to obey the government and individuals God placed over us? Remember, he was writing against Rome; as well, in the second half of Romans 13, he exhorts us in Romans 13:8 by saying, “Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law.”

Finally, I want to share a verse that stood out to me at church service a couple of weeks ago. In James 1:22–25, the author implores us to not merely listen to the word, by which manner would we deceive ourselves, but to do what the word says. If we hear the word and look in the mirror, then turn directly away and ignore the word, we deceive ourselves and our faith.

I wish that arguments such as these will sway you, but I do not hold out much hope. I only hope that you listen to your constituents and think about the impact that placing a facility such as the one you support will have on your own district and on the lives of the thousands of people you claim will pass through the facility in a revolving door fashion, individuals who have not, as you proclaim, committed horrific and violent crimes.