New Jersey Sues to Block ICE Detention Facility in Roxbury

Roxbury Township sits in the heart of Morris County, one of the reddest corners of New Jersey. Its all-Republican council doesn’t typically find common cause with Democratic governors or attorneys general. But the prospect of 2,000 immigrant detainees crammed into a warehouse with four toilets has a way of scrambling political allegiances.

New Jersey filed suit Friday to stop a planned ICE detention facility on Route 46 in Roxbury, and the announcement drew an unlikely coalition. Governor Phil Murphy, Attorney General Jennifer Davenport, and U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill stood together in Newark to lay out the state’s case against the federal government’s plan to convert a commercial warehouse into a large-scale immigration detention center.

Sherrill described “deep agreement” between her office and the Roxbury township council, a body that shares almost nothing with her politically. The Republican mayor, Shawn Potillo, was quoted in the official release announcing the suit.

“We remain confident that, through this process, it will be clearly demonstrated that this location is not appropriate for a facility of this nature, given the significant impacts it would have on our residents, local resources, and the surrounding environment,” Potillo said. He also acknowledged a practical reality about the partnership: the state’s legal resources protect local taxpayers from absorbing the full cost of fighting the federal government in court.

That’s not a small point. Roxbury is a township. The federal government is the federal government. Having Trenton in your corner matters when the other side has unlimited legal firepower.

The residents of Roxbury learned about ICE’s plans in late December, when news broke that the agency intended to purchase the Route 46 warehouse for immigrant detainees. The council quickly condemned the proposal. ICE bought the property anyway, earlier this year. Since then, opposition has built steadily, spilling from council chambers into the streets.

The core legal argument in the suit focuses on infrastructure. The proposed facility, the lawsuit contends, lacks adequate sewer and water capacity to house 2,000 people. The four-toilet figure keeps surfacing because it captures the problem bluntly. No amount of federal authority changes the physics of plumbing.

Despite the stated alignment between state and local officials, no Roxbury representatives attended Friday’s press conference in Newark. The governor framed the event as “laying the groundwork” for the litigation ahead, suggesting a long fight is coming.

One conspicuous absence from the coalition is Republican Rep. Thomas Kean Jr., whose 7th Congressional District covers Roxbury. Sherrill was asked directly whether her office had been in contact with Kean about the suit. The answer was no.

Kean’s role in this fight, or the lack of one, has drawn increasing scrutiny. After ICE completed its purchase of the warehouse, the Roxbury council stated publicly that Kean had not been an effective advocate for their interests. More recently, the township’s own website posted a statement praising two Democrats, Senators Cory Booker and Andy Kim, for legislation that would block federal funds from being used to purchase and convert warehouses into ICE detention centers.

A call to Kean’s Washington office seeking comment on the state’s lawsuit had not been returned as of publication.

There is one more layer to this story worth tracking. Anthony M. Bucco serves as Roxbury Township Attorney. He is also a sitting state senator, representing much of the same territory. Bucco’s dual role puts him at an interesting intersection of the local fight and the broader legislative conversation playing out in Trenton.

What’s happening in Roxbury reflects something larger. This isn’t a blue-district resistance story. This is a Republican Morris County town telling a Republican administration that its plans are unwelcome, impractical, and legally vulnerable. The coalition backing the lawsuit may not survive a single press cycle once the cameras go dark, but the lawsuit itself is real, the infrastructure concerns are real, and the political pressure on Kean from his own constituents is real.

New Jersey has fought the federal government before and won. Whether that happens here depends on what the courts make of the plumbing argument. But for now, Roxbury has Trenton’s attention, and Trenton has its back.