The State of Michigan and the City of Romulus have sued the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to stop them from converting a warehouse into an ICE detention center.
This week on MichMash, Gongwer News Service’s Alethia Kasben talks with Attorney General Dana Nessel to discuss her concerns about the department’s actions and much more.
Why did the State of Michigan and the City of Romulus sue the U.S. Department of Homeland Security?
Attorney General Nessel’s take on Pres. Trump attending Supreme Court hearing on birthright citizenship.
Data centers in Michigan
What Attorney Nessel plans to do after leaving office this term.
Nessel felt that the legality of the Romulus warehouse purchase was in question, and even pointed out the irony of the DHS operation.
“They are taking people who mostly have no criminal records of any kinds and [saying] that these people didn’t come into the state properly so we are going to detain you or deport. Well, DHS didn’t come in to Romulus properly. They are not abiding by the laws. So I think it’s a bit of hypocrisy by the federal government.”
Nessel said they filed a preliminary injunction so that DHS could not proceed with the project while the legal battle evolves.
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Thousands rallied against the actions of President Donald Trump across Michigan on Saturday.
In Ferndale, about three thousand people lined Woodward Avenue near 9 Mile Road to express their displeasure.
Barb Anness of Rochester Hills believes the protests can bring about change.
“I’m very heartened by the diversity of people that I see out here, and I think Americans are at their best when we come together and we speak with one voice when something is wrong, and we call it out and we work for change in a positive way,” Anness said.
Anness says her objections to the cuurent administration fall outside of partisan politics.
“For me, it’s not a left or right issue, it’s a right or wrong issue. We have authority in government that are not adhering to norms and laws, and it needs to change, and this November, we have an opportunity to speak with our voice through our ballot in the ballot booth,” Anness said.
Holly Haran of Royal Oak and her friend Barb Anness of Rochester Hills protest during a ‘No Kings’ rally in Ferndale, MI on March 28, 2026.
Anness came to Ferndale to protest with a friend – Holly Haran of Royal Oak. Haran isn’t happy with much of what’s coming from the federal government right now.
“There’s so much material that we can make signs for because there’s so many things that are being targeted,” Haran said. “Our voter rights, education, health care, there’s so many things that are being taken away. So and when they’re gone, it’s going to be really hard to get them back.”
A retired schoolteacher, Haran says she’s not happy with the tactics Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are using—especially near classrooms.
“It’s a really bad position to put educators in, because our job is to help kids,” Haran said.
Romulus protests proposed ICE facility
ICE was the primary topic of discussion in Romulus, where protesters gathered in front of a proposed detention facility on Cogswell Street.
Maxwell Pizzurro made the trip to the city from Chesterfield Township.
“I just think it’s really gross with these new camps that are opening up and how they’re just treating regular people,” Pizzurro said.
“What’s the difference between me and my family who came here [from Sicily] and a new family from Ghana? Or a new family from Portugal or Brazil? There’s no difference between us. We’re all just looking to make a good life for us and our families,” Pizzurro said.
A protest sign during a ‘No Kings’ rally in Romulus on March 28, 2026
Terry Golden Davis is an Army vet and grew up in Romulus. He says things have gotten so bad he turned up for his first-ever protest.
“Somebody’s got to stand up to this hypocrisy. This is so sad. I spent hours making signs. Hours,” Davis said.
“Nobody wants this. The should use it [the warehouse] for something, but not this,” Davis said.
Clad in a Harley Davidson jacket, lifelong Romulus resident Ken Cullen is concerned about the mistreatment of detainees.
“I mean, this is a warehouse. There’s no showers. There’s no bathrooms. There’s nothing,” Cullen said. “You can’t just house people in a warehouse, and expect them to live.”
A protest sign in Ferndale, MI during a 'No Kings' rally on March 28, 2026.
Yip Yip Martians of Sesame Street fame express their displeasure wit the Trump Administration during a 'No Kings' rally in Ferndale, MI on March 28, 2026.
People at a 'No Kings' rally in Romulus protesting against a planned immigration detention center.
State Representative Donavan McKinney at a 'No Kings' rally in Romulus, MI on March 28, 2026.
A 'No Kings' protester in front of a warehouse in Romulus that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security wants to turn into a detention center for immigrants.
A 'No Kings' rally in front of a warehouse in Romulus that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security wants to turn into a detention center for immigrants.
Gerod Funderburg does not want the facility in his city. and he doesn’t believe President Trump that the detainees are hardened criminals either.
“They are people who are looking for better place to stay, better place to live, better opportunities for themselves—and he’s not providing it. If this is going to be a jail, we don’t want a jail around the corner from our homes,” Funderburg said.
Romulus City Council unanimously passed a resolution to denounce the ICE detention facility, and more recently filed a lawsuit alongside Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel to stop its establishment.
Department of Homeland Security agents guarded the warehouse during Saturday’s protest, and approached U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib to redirect her when she tried parking in the driveway.
Representative Dylan Wegela represents Romulus in the state house. He says abolition is the only way.
“We do not want this detention center here. We want, instead, to defund ICE. We want to abolish ICE, and we want to prosecute ICE.”
Many detainees have died while in ICE custody over the past year, and three American citizens have been killed by federal agents during President Trump’s push for mass deportations.
What people see as priorities
Wegela says President Trump is focused on the wrong things.
“He’s entered us into a war with Iran that is costing $2 billion a day,” Wegela said. “Instead of our money going towards bombing, say, a girl’s school in Iran, we would rather it be spent here to make sure that we are investing in our roads and our schools.”
Steve Conn of Detroit says if the people don’t speak out about injustice happening towards immigrants then the situation will get worse.
“We got to make sure people understand. If you don’t stand up now for immigrants, you too will be in there,” Conn said.
White House dismisses protests
Estimates place 9 million people in the streets for the ‘No Kings’ protests. The White House is dismissive.
“The only people who care about these Trump Derangement Therapy Sessions are the reporters who are paid to cover them,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said in a statement.
Ken Cullen is unmoved by that statement.
“Everything we hear is lies and propaganda. The truth is out here with all the people,” Cullen said. “They are showing we’re not that stupid.”
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The state of Michigan and the city of Romulus have filed a lawsuit seeking to block a proposed ICE detention center near Detroit Metro Airport. The lawsuit states that ICE failed to consult Michigan officials and didn’t consider alternative buildings, such as existing prisons.
Attorney General Dana Nessel said in a statement a warehouse is not an appropriate place for a large scale detention center. The lawsuit comes after Nessel wrote a letter demanding that ICE halt the project and filed a FOIA request to see records on the purchase and plans for the warehouse.
Additional headlines from Thursday, March 26, 2026
FORCE Detroit starts flag football league
FORCE Detroit, a community violence intervention (CVI) organization, is hosting an activation for the newly launched CVI Athletics Program.
The program is starting a youth flag football league with Detroit PAL and Detroit’s Occupy the Summer initiative. The league will have two age divisions: ages 11-13 and ages 14-17.
The event is being held Friday, March 27 from 6-8 p.m. at the Chandler Park Fieldhouse Dome.
Sacred Paths of India tour
The Interfaith Leadership Council of Metropolitan Detroit is hosting a Sacred Paths of India Bus Tour. The tour will take participants to three houses of worship for the Jain, Hindu, and Sikh faiths. The tour aims to explore the traditions and experiences of each faith community.
Each location will showcase how the religious traditions are practiced today and explore the meaning behind the sacred spaces and rituals.
Tickets are $90 and include a seat on the bus, all three faith experiences and lunch. Seating is limited. The tour is on April 10 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Reparation Generation open house
The non-profit group Reparation Generation is hosting a virtual house meeting on Tuesday, April 14 at 8 p.m. The meeting will discuss what they call their “reparations in action” approach, the broader reparation movement, and ways to engage.
The group holds these meetings every other month to share the mission and goal of the organization.
Non Profit BasBlue is celebrating five years with the 2026 Bold Women Summit on March 31. The summit title is “The Power of Us: Celebrating Women Shaping the Future” and will feature keynote conversations with fashion designer Tracy Reese and Motown Museum CEO Robin Terry.
Since BasBlue launched in 2021, the organization has more than 600 members, with 125 participating annually in its Trailblazer Scholarship program.
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Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel and the city of Romulus filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday seeking to stop the Trump administration from converting a local warehouse into a large-scale immigration detention center.
Editor’s note: Some images in this story contain language that may be offensive.
Roughly one thousand protesters gathered outside Romulus City Hall this week to voice opposition towards plans for a new Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center. Among the crowd were concerned residents, public officials, faith leaders, and Michiganders from across the state.
Melody Karr was one of the many protestors picketing the building. She said she lives just an hour away from the detention facility that opened last year in Baldwin and has been to multiple demonstrations protesting it’s opening.
“We don’t need any more concentration camps in Michigan. Anybody that’s paying attention can see that we’re not concentrating on the worst of the worst, that they’re running rampant over our constitutional rights,” said Karr.
City officials say they oppose the detention center
The demonstration preceded the weekly City Council meeting, where a resolution opposing any detention center within city limits was unanimously passed.
Following the vote, Romulus Mayor Robert McCraight said he and the city are doing everything they can to stop the development of an ICE detention facility. Citing his letter of opposition sent the previous week to ICE Director Todd Lyons and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, McCraight said a detention center would conflict with current zoning regulations and be too close to residential homes less than a quarter mile away.
McCraight said that, despite not hearing from any officials on the federal level since news broke, he would do what he could to prevent the plans from moving forward.
“While I’m sitting in this position as mayor, we will not issue a permit or certificate of occupancy for this structure unless we’re mandated by a federal judge,” said McCraight.
As the mayor spoke, demonstrators could be heard chanting outside the building. Only 49 of the protestors outside were let into the meeting due to safety codes set by the fire marshal. Those in attendance reiterated their opposition during public comment.
Residents urge more action
Dan Doyle lives less than a mile from the proposed detention center. He urged the city to do more to stop the plans.
“I’m requesting immediate action. Cut the utilities, condemn the building, demo it, take it under eminent domain, whatever you can do. Make it impossible for them to use our neighborhood for these concentration camps,” said Doyle. “This will not be solved by a harshly worded letter or a resolution. We need action.”
State Sen. Darrin Camilleri attends the Romulus protest.
Outside in the bitter cold, protestors continued their picket at city hall. Darrin Camilleri, who represents Romulus as a member of the Michigan Senate, was one of many public officials who came to support demonstrators. So far, Camilleri has been one of the only state legislators to reach out to Romulus officials after the plans for a detention center went public. He said he has been working with the city to uncover details about the building purchased by ICE.
“We know that an auto supplier, they put a bid in to buy this building, but ICE came in and outbid the auto supplier. So the Trump administration is literally taking away American jobs from our community that would love an opportunity like that,” said Camilleri. “Now we’re getting stuck with a detention center that no one wants, and it’s down the street from where people live. It’s down the street from where kids go to school.”
Outside of ICE Detention Center
The building, located at 7525 Cogswell Street, was previously owned by the real estate investment firm Crestlight Capital. John Coury, managing partner at the firm, said he can’t disclose the selling price or the specific agency the building was sold to due to a signed non-disclosure agreement, according to reporting from Crain’s Detroit Business.
Pattern of quiet-buying
Secrecy surrounding these purchases aren’t unique to Romulus, either. In Social Circle, Georgia, officials were blindsided when they heard of plans to convert a warehouse in the city into a detention center. The previous owner of the warehouse, a commercial real estate firm called PNK Group, said they signed an NDA and couldn’t disclose any information to the city or residents. One month later, a deed for the warehouse was obtained that showed the federal government paid over $100 million more than the most recently assessed price.
When asked by WDET if the Romulus warehouse was purchased for an inflated price compared to the 2025 assessed value of $6,988,500, Crestlight Capital did not respond for comment.
At the time of writing, the city of Romulus has not received any documents indicating how much the property was purchased for.
Southfield ICE offices
Earlier this month, the city released a statement saying offices in Southfield’s One Towne Square were to be leased by the US General Services Administration (GSA) to “support administrative and legal functions associated with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.”
The statement aligns with reporting from last year that showed the GSA was working with ICE to acquire offices across the country to expand it’s operations
Statements from REDICO, the landlord of the office space, said the lease was with the GSA, not ICE, and “the lease explicitly prohibits any law enforcement, detention or similar activities to take place on the premises.” REDICO’s statement prompted the city to remove their statement on the purchase from its website.
When asked about the city’s removed statement, Southfield Mayor Kenson Siver said he has only heard from REDICO, not GSA or ICE, and the city doesn’t have authority to intervene in tenant/landlord issues as long as they are compliant with zoning laws.
Still, residents and lawmakers are on edge amid the confusion. During the Southfield City Council meeting that took place the same time as the Romulus demonstration, residents packed the building to speak out against any potential presence of ICE in the city.
Protesters wait to be let in at the Romulus City Council meeting. Most are turned away, told that the room already reached capacity.
Southfield resident Lauren Fink said the city still needs to do more to address the offices potentially used in association with ICE.
“I’ve seen statements intended to calm our anxieties about this office opening here in our own community, telling us that this office cannot house armed and uniformed agents,” said Fink. “There seems to be this idea that the work being done by people in offices like this is acceptable, but the work being done by the people they enable is not. That kind of attitude is what allows the horrors of an authoritarian regime to continue.”
Southfield City Council unanimously passed a resolution “affirming community safety, civil rights, and local policy” during the meeting. The resolution does not mention the lease with GSA or the planned office.
A call for community action
Following the possible expansion of ICE in the metro Detroit area, Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib released a statement condemning the encroachment and urging more collective action from the community.
“Across the country, people are coming together and fighting to prevent this massive expansion of ICE’s network of abuse and cruelty. We must organize and use every tool at our disposal to keep ICE out of our neighborhoods,” said Tlaib.
The Southfield office and planned detention center in Romulus come as the Trump administration massively increases the budget for ICE and plans on spending $38.3 billion to turn warehouses across the country into detention centers. Both actions have been made possible through last year’s passing of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which has allocated billions of federal funds for the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda.
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About a thousand protesters showed up to city hall in Romulus to protest a planned Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in the city.
Lieutenant Governor Garlin Gilchrist, who is hoping to win the Democratic nomination for Secretary of State was also there. “I make sure that people have the power to vote against those who would want to sign off on a budget that would approve these kind of expenditures… that would approve this kind of ICE personnel deployment,” said Gilchrist. “That is unacceptable, and we need ICE out of Michigan.”
Romulus City Council voted unanimously to condemn the proposed detention center, but admitted they still have not received formal confirmation of the building’s sale to the federal government.
-Reporting by Russ McNamara
Additional headlines for Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026
Whitmer will use State of the State to talk affordable housing
Governor Gretchen Whitmer will use her State of the State address Wednesday to call for more programs to address a shortage of affordable housing in Michigan.
Her plans include an affordable housing tax credit to spur development, cuts to regulations and faster approval of building permits. The governor has expressed concerns that President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs will add thousands of dollars to the costs of home-building materials. The governor delivers her State of the State address the evening following the president’s State of the Union address tonight. (MPRN)
New office of Community Safety
Detroit Mayor Mary Sheffield has established a new office of Neighborhood and Community Safety. Its goal is to help prevent domestic violence and promote conflict resolution.
Teferi Brent will lead the office. He says domestic abuse is a major source of violence that the city needs to address. Brent says that effort would further lower the number of homicides, which hit a 60-year low in 2025.
-Reporting by Pat Batcheller
Detroit Historical Society celebrates Women’s History Month
The Detroit Historical Society is kicking off Women’s History Month with ‘Love and Flowers: A tribute to Detroit’s Black Matriarchs’ Sunday.
The event is a celebration of caregivers past and present and an opportunity to reflect on the question of what it looks like to honor the Black women who “built… nurtured and fought for a better Detroit.”
Registration is through the Black Bottom Archives as a part of its Bottom Up series of community programs exploring memory, storytelling and Black Detroit’s living history.
A museum membership is required for admission, but the Detroit Historical Museum offers a free membership to Detroiters and individual memberships starting at $60 on its website.
Literacy fundraiser
The Flint Unity Farming Project is having a popcorn fundraiser to support is literacy and learning programs.
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President Trump is continuing to push lies about the 2020 presidential election in Detroit, and using his unsupported claims of fraud to push for federal oversight of midterms.
During an executive order signing to end the government shutdown, Trump told reporters he thinks Republicans should take election rights away from some states that the president did not win in 2020. He used three prominent swing states as examples.
“Take a look at Detroit… take a look at Pennsylvania… take a look at Philadelphia. You go take a look at Atlanta. Look at some of the places that… horrible corruption on elections.”
Prominent Republican strategist and Trump-ally Steve Bannon has said ICE agents would be sent to polling places in this year’s midterm elections.
Detroit City Clerk Janice Winfrey says any attempt to take over voting would be partisan politics at its worst. Winfrey says the results were fair and transparent then and subsequent elections have been, too. The U.S. Constitution says states decide how to conduct elections. Congress can enact some regulations, but the president has no control over elections.
Sheffield signed an order last week aimed at improving transparency in the city’s assessment process and requiring the office to meet national standards.
Professor Bernadette Athutahene says the order does not specify how to conduct an assessment ratio study, which is required by the property tax reform ordinance.
“We thought that the executive order would say, you know, to do a mass appraisal report, and those two things are different. The mass appraisal report, you can’t apply Iao standards to a mass appraisal report.”
The coalition did praise Sheffield for requiring the office follow the ratio standards of the International Association of Assessing Officers. The coalition published a revised version of the executive order with more parameter specifics for a property assessment.
ICE detention facility proposed in Romulus
A 500 bed ICE detention facility has been proposed for Romulus, but officials say it’s not set in stone. Romulus was among 23 locations nationwide identified in a recent Bloomberg report detailing the Trump administration’s plan to buy warehouses and convert them into ICE detention centers.
The Washington Post reported in December that a warehouse in Highland Park was being looked at as a potential location. The Mayor of Highland Park has recently said the city was not interested at all and the city lacks the space for such a plan.
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WDET strives to cover what’s happening in your community. As a public media institution, we maintain our ability to explore the music and culture of our region through independent support from readers like you. If you value WDET as your source of news, music and conversation, please make a gift today.
An unnamed gunman was arrested at Romulus Middle School.
The school was placed on lockdown following reports of shots fired outside the building on the second day of classes in the new year.
Romulus Police responded following reports of an ‘active shooter’ after school employees observed a man with a handgun attempting to enter the school’s main doors. A witness told police they heard shots fired.
Officers arrested a 44-year-old man near the school’s main entrance. A handgun was recovered at the scene.
Police say the investigation into the suspect’s motives is ongoing and there is no threat to the school or the community at this time.
Anyone with information related to this incident is asked to contact Detective Sergeant Otter at (734) 942-6857.
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WDET strives to make our journalism accessible to everyone. As a public media institution, we maintain our journalistic integrity through independent support from readers like you. If you value WDET as your source of news, music and conversation, please make a gift today.
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