SALT LAKE CITY — On Monday, both Salt Lake City and Salt Lake County filed a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, claiming a lack of transparency. This comes after DHS purchased an 833,000 square foot warehouse on the city’s west side for over $145 million dollars back in March, with plans the house as many as 10,000 people.
Both city and county officials claim they were not filled in on the decision.
“Literally, one morning we woke up hearing about the purchase of a property that wasn't zoned for it, that’s never been zoned for that,” said Salt Lake City Council Chair Alejandro Puy. "We are seeking answers, and this is what this lawsuit states.”
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The news of the purchase sparked outrage in local groups and activists, who started doing weekly protests, and now feel it was worth it.
“I'm just relieved… I was also like, 'Do something,' because it feels so overwhelming to have grassroots groups coming up against what we are, which is literally millions of dollars,” said Sarah Buck with Salt Lake Indivisible. "I think what it reinforces for me is we, the people, still have the power, and we need to take that power.”
In the lawsuit, the city and county cite concerns of sewage capacity, lack of water, poor air quality, and increased traffic — claiming these have not been addressed by DHS and ICE despite the local governments requesting information.
Local activist TJ Young has been protesting every Wednesday for 10 weeks now and has her own concerns.
“For the city and the county, often the tools that they have available to them are about the environment, or about the utilities, are about the permitting processes. So, we need them for those tools and those actions that they can take, and for us, we're more focused on making sure people remember these are human beings, and we don't agree with the DHS publicly stated plans to treat people like packages,” she said.
“I think that people are waking up to the reality that a lot of what's happening has not even been run by us, and a lot of the things that they're doing are not representative of how we want our government to be behaving, or how we want our tax dollars spent,” Buck said.
Young said she will keep protesting until it is stopped, and Puy said the work is far from over.
“Ultimately, the city, we have fewer paths to go follow, and this is one of those, but our electoral officials on the federal level do have more power. So, I invite everybody to tell federal delegation, our elected officials at the state level, to make sure that they keep the fire on the administration,” he said.
DHS and ICE have 20 days to respond. The case will be heard in federal court. FOX 13 News reached out to both DHS and ICE to see if either agency had any response to the lawsuit but did not get a response.
