ICE Warehouse Plan for Southwest Oklahoma City Falls Through, Mayor Says

A plan to turn a southwest Oklahoma City warehouse into an immigration processing center appears to be off. Mayor David Holt said the property owner has confirmed that the Department of Homeland Security is no longer in conversations to acquire the building for use by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The warehouse at 2800 S. Council Road was one of 16 sites nationwide that ICE was reportedly weighing for facilities to detain and process hundreds of immigrants. A December 23, 2025, letter from DHS to the Oklahoma City Planning Department laid out the idea of buying the 26.8-acre property and converting it into a "new Oklahoma City processing center" with 1,500 beds.

The letter was sent under a federal law requiring DHS to tell local governments whether a project affects historic property. DHS said the building, completed in 2023, has no historic or archaeological significance. The letter listed possible changes including fencing, lighting, security cameras and a guard shack. Inside, the warehouse would be renovated to include holding and processing areas, offices, medical space, restrooms and a cafeteria.

Sen. Michael Brooks-Jimenez, who represents District 44, where the warehouse sits, criticized the proposal before the update. Brooks-Jimenez said the community had not been consulted. "Apparently there was no outreach to the people who live in that community," the senator said, adding that the idea involved using a building designed to store boxes to hold people. "We did not have a say in this," Brooks-Jimenez said.

Brooks-Jimenez also raised concerns that an ICE purchase, as opposed to a lease, could make the facility permanent. The property is owned by an out-of-state developer. The senator also questioned the administration's stated focus on people with criminal records or prior deportations, saying that in their experience about 70% of those arrested have neither.

ICE invited the city and several tribes to take part in the consultation: the Apache Tribe of Oklahoma, Cherokee Nation, the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes, the Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma, Osage Nation, and the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes. As of late December, none had responded.

The city said the federal law gives it no power to overrule DHS on the historic-property question, though it may offer feedback. City staff found no evidence of an impact on historic property but planned to ask DHS to seek a special permit, which Oklahoma City ordinances typically require for siting a detention facility.

City officials acknowledged the legal limits, however. They said the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution has been interpreted to exempt the federal government from local land use and building code rules, and federal law explicitly exempts detention centers from local zoning. For that reason, federal agencies have not historically sought city zoning approval for projects at places such as Tinker Air Force Base or the Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center.

City attorneys also reviewed recent measures in Durant, Oklahoma, and Kansas City, Missouri. They concluded that Durant's ordinance essentially already exists in Oklahoma City, and that a broader moratorium like Kansas City's is unlikely to legally restrain the federal government. The city said decisions about land use are best made locally, with input from residents, and that it would send feedback to DHS and ask its congressional delegation to support a local public approval process.