Upon receiving a letter from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Oklahoma City officials are in the process of crafting a response regarding the proposed "new Oklahoma City processing center" for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), as the letter detailed plans to purchase and repurpose a warehouse at 2800 S. Council Road, complete with security booths, fencing, dining areas, holding and processing spaces, and medical care facilities, the city said in a statement obtained by Oklahoma City's official website.
The communication from DHS is part of a federal requirement to inform local governments about federal projects affecting historical properties, to which DHS asserted that the project does not, the City's Planning Department is preparing a response that communicates the desire for the DHS to obtain further local approvals beyond the impact on historical property including asking for a special permit typically required for detention centers, though federal law exempts such facilities from local zoning regulations believing it exempts the government from local land use and building codes based on the Constitution's supremacy clause, and the same legislative interpretation that historically allowed federal entities like Tinker Air Force Base and the Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center to bypass Oklahoma City's zoning approval, thus impacting the city's stance that land use decisions are better made at the local level.
Oklahoma City officials have reviewed recent ordinances from Durant, Oklahoma, and Kansas City, Missouri, finding that the former's measures already exist in Oklahoma City while the latter's involved a broader moratorium on non-municipal detention center approvals, city councilors advised that such measures are unlikely to legally restrict the federal government due to the supremacy clause, as per discussions quoted by the city's news article.
The city has long maintained that the siting of a detention center is a matter of local public interest that would benefit from a public approval process including resident participation, especially those living near the proposed facility, with the understanding that any private sector activity would indeed be subject to such a process, even though federal undertakings might override such local ordinances, the city still plans to send its comments to DHS and will also reach out to the congressional representatives for support in promoting local public approval processes on such matters, according to details shared on Oklahoma City's official website.
