The Arizona government is reluctant to construct a detention center for undocumented immigrants near a site where hazardous chemicals are prevalent and could have a harmful impact on the health of those exposed to them.

Under scrutiny, the Attorney General's office Arizona, Kris Mayes, filed a lawsuit against the federal government to block the project planned for the city of Surprise. According to the complaint, the Trump administration, through the release of $70 million on January 23, supported a suggestion from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to purchase a warehouse in the aforementioned city. The goal was to adapt the building into a facility where up to 1,500 undocumented immigrants detained by ICE could be temporarily housed before being sent back to their countries of origin. It is even mentioned that the federal government has already awarded contracts for more than $300 million to companies that would be in charge of remodeling the warehouse. However, the argument presented against the project is that the building was constructed years ago for specifically industrial purposes and not to house hundreds of people as intended, since thousands of tons of [materials] are stored nearby. toxic products.

“It is located directly across from a chemical storage facility containing thousands of gallons of hazardous materials,” states part of the lawsuit.

Apparently, the site in question covers more than 100,000 square feet and stores containers of hazardous materials intended for chemicals used in semiconductor manufacturing. This could cause health problems for those exposed to these products without proper protective equipment, which immigration authorities would be unlikely to provide to detained foreigners.

Therefore,In a statement, the Arizona attorney general indicated that the controversial project will not be allowed to move forward. “The Trump administration has trampled federal law in its eagerness to expand detention capacity across the country,” she emphasized.