News on ICE Warehouses:

Mar 18: Project Salt Box listed Merrimack as a potential warehouse site. There were rumors that ICE was still looking at Merrimack. An activist reported that a for sale sign had been placed on the warehouse. The next day, Salt Box removed Merrimack from the list of potential sites.  

Mar 19: The block on work at Williamsport by ICE was extended by a judge. The judge will rule on the filing for a longer injunction during the week of April 13^th. At issue is whether the federal government is required to complete an environmental review before beginning construction on the warehouse.  

Mar 19: A story broke on the current state prison capacity in Colorado and how Walsenburg may figure in plans for future expansion. If the state were to buy the facility in Walsenburg, ICE would not have access to it to open a detention site.  

Mar 20: New Jersey sued to block an ICE warehouse in Roxbury. The NJ State Attorney General with the town of Roxbury filed a lawsuit to block the conversion of the warehouse. The suit alleges that DHS violated four laws when purchasing and moving to convert the Roxbury site.   

Mar 23: The Hagerstown Rapid Response grassroots group was excluded from a closed-door roundtable with the Governor, US Representative, and other community leaders after being promised access. The group is now calling for a public town hall meeting on the Williamsport location.

COMING: April 8, 4:30 MST on ZOOM

Dorian Gray from No Concentration Camps Colorado (NCCC) will address NoCCUS members on his immigration data tool called coldCounter. coldCounter is an open-source data infrastructure project that aggregates, normalizes, and documents immigration detention data. The project produces a portable SQLite data mart that allows researchers, policy analysts, and civil rights organizations to explore immigration detention records in a transparent and reproducible way. Dorian will explain how he developed the tool and how to use it. Additionally, he will address the issue of hold rooms that are being used by ICE around the country and how coldCounter can aid in highlighting violations.