A North Jersey town is pushing back after being named in a national report for locations to expand immigrant detention.

Roxbury in Morris County is among a list of 16 sites the Trump administration is reportedly considering for housing migrants in former industrial warehouses.

Residents protested outside a council meeting late last month and again over the weekend, even as local officials say they haven't gotten a formal notice.

Senior correspondent Joanna Gagis has the latest.

The site of a new ICE immigration detention center.

According to a recent Washington Post report, DHS draft documents outlined a plan to repurpose warehouse space in Roxbury to house detainees.

dozens of protesters fill really have not been inv work, but all came togeth because they were so alar could be coming to their a is with the International Pax Christi.

She helped co at the council meeting as she said she had bipartisan support.

Roxbury Mayor Sean Petillo assured town council attendees on Tuesday that no council members had received any formal communication from ICE.

<No plans have been presented to the township and no discussions were held between Roxbury officials and DHS or ICE.

Upon learning of this information through the media, we immediately reached out to our county, state and federal representatives.

Patillo says they're trying to determine how Roxbury came to be on that list.

We reached out to DHS for confirmation but haven't yet heard back.

Many of the protesters who showed up, including O'Leary, live in towns close to Roxbury.

William Angus was a Roxbury resident for 10 years but now lives in neighboring Warren County.

He says opening a detention facility would have a regional impact.

You can be a trump suppor of ice and not want an ic in your own town.

It's wel prisons come to a town, th property values, they can They can negatively impact services like police and that, Angus worries about a warehouse into a detenti are meant for packages.

T designed to adequately hou and safe living condition that Senate Republican le He represents Roxbury as Personally, I don't think that a nice facility in the middle of a town like Roxbury is something that the federal government should consider.

There are residential areas in Roxbury where some of these warehouse facilities exist.

So I just don't think that's the type of facility you want in that type of area.

Leroy and others are calling on Roxbury to use zoning laws to prevent the move.

The township committee could use its zoning regulations to pass an ordinance saying that private prisons are not a permitted use within their township.

The state passed a law in 2021 prohibiting towns and counties from contracting with ICE to run detention facilities, but private companies can still partner with ICE.

GEO Group opened Delaney Hall in Newark last year, and ICE also announced plans to house detainees at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst.

But Bugo says municipalities actually have very little legal recourse to stop these proceedings.

Under the law as it exists today, the federal government is immune from local zoning laws.

But in Roxbury, not every property has public water or public sewer.

So that could be an issue in this case.

That lack of infrastructure could be the key to preventing a detention center from coming here if or when the government ever moves forward.

For NJ Spotlight News, I'm Joanna Gaggis.

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