An ICE Jail In Elmhurst? Some Residents Fear It

ELMHURST, IL – Some residents fear that a planned warehouse in southwest Elmhurst would be converted into a jail for immigrants.

However, the developer, Houston-based Alliance Industrial Co., disputes this assertion.

The specter of the warehouse turning into an ICE facility is not coming from nowhere.

In February, Alliance joined with Carlyle Group, a Washington, D.C.-based equity firm, to sell two Georgia warehouses to ICE for $68 million, according to a real estate news website.

The city is considering a request for a warehouse on South Riverside Drive, near Salt Creek Elementary School. It would require demolishing Clarion Inn.

Alliance representatives said they have no tenants lined up yet.

During a city zoning hearing on Tuesday, company representatives denied having any conversations with ICE about the planned Elmhurst warehouse.

They suggested the city include a condition in its zoning approval barring the property from becoming an ICE jail or a data center, which residents also oppose.

Later in the meeting, Susan Rose, the zoning board's chairwoman, asked an Alliance executive about the prospect of a jail, reminding him he was under oath.

"We have had no conversations with ICE," said the executive, Cory Welper.

Upon further questioning, Welper also said it would not become an Amazon-like distribution center, saying the property is severely limited for that type of business.

Rose said if the property were zoned industrial, as the company is requesting, residential uses would not be allowed. A jail, she said, would be considered residential.

She said the city's attorney advised her that no law called for federal supremacy in zoning.

If the federal government sought to overrule zoning, the city would go to court, she said.

"We would be willing to defend the zoning laws," Rose said.

The idea of an ICE jail came up during public comments, as it did two weeks ago.

The first speaker, whose name Patch could not verify, told the zoning board that the warehouse could be used as a "concentration camp." In other cases around the country, she said, the conditions at ICE's warehouse jails were deplorable.

"It's in your power to prevent this development," she said.

Rose said her panel, formally known as the Zoning and Planning Commission, was a fact-finding body that does not take up federal policy.

"We are not here to speculate on what someone might or might not do," she said.

The next speaker, a mask-wearing man, did not identify himself. He suggested the zoning board members were "Nazi sympathizers" for considering a warehouse that could become an immigrant jail.

Rose objected to the man's insult, telling him to stop.

He did, but left with a message.

"Stay safe," he said. "F– ICE."