Arizona sues to block ICE facility near chemical warehouse

SURPRISE, Ariz. (CN) — Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes sued the federal government Friday to stop the construction of an ICE detention facility just one mile from two public schools and across the street from a hazardous chemical storage facility.

Standing outside the 418,000-square-foot warehouse Friday morning, Mayes said the Department of Homeland Security violated multiple federal laws when it chose the location of a migrant detention and processing facility it says could hold as many as 1,500 detainees at a time.

"The federal government wants to open up a jail inside a documented chemical hazard zone," the Democrat told a gaggle of reporters in the Arizona heat. "If there is a tank rupture or a chemical spill or a fire, emergency responders will be responding to a potential mass casualty event involving hundreds if not thousands of people who are locked in and cannot get out."

Mayes pointed to multiple chemical tanker trucks parked alongside the road, blocking access to two different fire hydrants.

A neighborhood sits just 300 yards from the same chemical plant. Mayes said the difference is that those homeowners could self-evacuate if an emergency were to occur.

In the lawsuit, Mayes says the government failed to conduct the necessary environmental reviews to satisfy the National Environmental Policy Act and Administrative Procedures Act, and also failed to conduct proper community consultation.

"The city of Surprise was completely surprised," Mayes said of the original proposal. "The federal government did not ask the people of Surprise whether they wanted this facility in their backyards," she said. "They did not ask the parents of the children who go to school near here. They simply bought a warehouse, handed a $300 million contract to a private company and told the city to deal with it."

Homeland Security recently waived NEPA and other environmental laws to construct more of the southern border wall, but Arizona Solicitor General Josh Bendor said the waiver doesn't apply to detention facilities.

A federal judge in Maryland rejected the government's argument over a similar facility earlier this month, concerned over sewage management for potentially hundreds of detainees.

Mayes said she has the same concerns in Surprise.

"This place is not plumbed for 1,500 human beings," she said.

Mayes added that the facility will need to use so much water, she fears it will divert water that would otherwise be used to fight fires in the case of a chemical spill.

She also challenges the facility under the Immigration and Nationality Act, which requires "appropriate facilities" to house detainees.

She said the warehouse would require massive amounts of retrofitting before it could humanely house that many people.

Cali Overs, a senior and student council vice president at Dysart High School, said many of her classmates walk past the warehouse on their way to school. The student population being 60% Hispanic, she said her classmates are scared to go near the facility once it is staffed with ICE and other border agents.

"Students have already started going online because of this," she said.

The federal government purchased the warehouse for $70 million in January and announced its plans without any notification to the city or the state. Mayes sent a letter to then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem demanding answers in February, but received no response.

State Senator Analise Ortiz, a Democrat from Phoenix, said at the press conference that she and 37 other state lawmakers signed a letter to the Surprise City Council urging them to act on what she called a "human rights nightmare."

To the anger of many Surprise residents, Mayor Kevin Sartor said in April that challenging the detention center in court would be a waste of time and resources.

Mayes said it's worth the fight.

"You lose every battle that you choose not to fight," she said to the applause of a few activists gathered at the presser. "Today, the state of Arizona is choosing to fight."

At least 48 people have died in ICE custody since Trump returned to office. In Arizona, a Haitian asylum seeker died of a severe tooth infection on March 2 after staff at the Florence detention center ignored cries for help for weeks. In 2025, cancer patient and green card holder Arbella Marquez was denied proper medical care for months at a detention center in Eloy, Arizona.

Mayes said the Homeland Security's own inspector general has repeatedly detailed patterns of abuse in facilities across the country.

On April 9, Arizona Representatives Adelita Grijalva, Greg Stanton and Yassamin Ansari visited a detention center in Mesa, Arizona, detailing "shocking conditions" including "detainees forced to march in the desert heat for hours until people fainted," told it was all for "the price of the American dream."

Friday marks the 41st lawsuit Mayes has filed or joined against the Trump administration in his second term. Considering temporary restraining orders, injunctions and occasions the administration chose not to fight back, Mayes said she has an 81% success rate against the feds in the last two years.

The Department of Homeland Security has not responded to a request for comment.