The Department of Homeland Security has abandoned plans to convert a commercial warehouse in Social Circle, Georgia, into an immigration detention facility capable of holding 10,000 people, after residents of the small town organized in opposition to the project.
The cancellation became the centerpiece of a conversation between MS NOW host Rachel Maddow and comedian Jon Stewart on “The Daily Show” Monday, where the pair raised broader concerns about the scale and purpose of detention facilities the Trump administration has pursued nationwide.
“Social circle stood up for itself,” Maddow said. “You know, people all over the country where Trump wanted to put these mega prisons, these were huge warehouses to hold people by the thousands. Places that would hold five, six, seven, ten, 14,000 people, all without trial, held indefinitely.”
Stewart argued that many people swept into immigration detention are held over matters “generally considered in our society, civil issues,” not criminal conduct.
“These are people who overstayed a student visa or are here on a green card but got a parking ticket, like ticky-tack s— that normally would be treated civilly,” Stewart said.
Maddow went further, suggesting that the infrastructure being built for immigration enforcement could eventually be turned toward a wider population.
“No, I’m sorry, with a president like this, if you give him seven to ten prisons around the country that hold 10,000 people each, where he can hold people without trial, without access to lawyers, indefinitely, you think he’s only going to leave immigrants in there? I just don’t. I think that what they first do to immigrants, they want to do to the rest of us,” Maddow said.
The remarks drew sharp pushback from the White House and from a former Republican National Committee spokesperson.
White House spokesman Davis Ingle told Fox News Digital that Stewart was a “talentless hack” who suffers from “Trump Derangement Syndrome.”
Elizabeth Pipko, the former RNC national spokesperson, rejected the framing that legal immigrants face any risk from the policy.
“There is a difference. Immigrants came to this country legally, built lives here and became proud American citizens. They are not targets for deportation or arrest by immigration officers. Rachel Maddow and Jon Stewart both know that,” Pipko said. She added the commentary was “an attempt to go viral and to push a political narrative against a president she doesn’t like, regardless of who suffers along the way.”
Whatever one makes of the dueling arguments, the underlying fact is not in dispute: DHS dropped its plan for a 10,000-bed facility in Social Circle after local residents organized against it, underscoring that community opposition can still alter federal detention policy at the local level, even as the administration continues to expand detention capacity elsewhere in the country.
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