Demonstrators protest on Wednesday in Hanover, Va., against the sale of a warehouse to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.Brian Palmer/The Globe and Mail
Vancouver-based Jim Pattison Developments says the planned sale of its warehouse property in Virginia to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement will not go ahead.
The company announced the decision in a one-sentence statement provided to The Globe and Mail on Friday morning.
“The transaction to sell our industrial building in Ashland, Virginia, will not be proceeding,” the statement said. It did not provide further details on how or why the sale came to be halted.
The proposed sale, which became public Jan. 22, had sparked protests on both sides of the border as ICE faces intensifying scrutiny of its enforcement operations. Federal agents shot and killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis in January, drawing widespread outrage and calls for accountability.
Explainer: What to know about ICE, the U.S. federal immigration agency
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said ICE intended to use the 553,000-square-foot warehouse building as a holding and processing facility. Jim Pattison Developments, which has owned the property since 2022, said it was initially unaware who the ultimate buyer was, or what the building would be used for.
In Canada, people organized boycotts of businesses owned by billionaire-philanthropist Jim Pattison, and some companies began severing business ties with his conglomerate.
In Virginia, hundreds of people attended a Hanover County public meeting this week to oppose an ICE facility in the community.
The county’s board of supervisors unanimously opposed the sale, saying Wednesday that an ICE facility would be inconsistent with the county’s land-use policies, given the area’s proximity to retail businesses, hotels, restaurants and residential neighbourhoods.
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The county could not veto the sale but planned to explore its legal options and urged DHS to reconsider.
Canadian advertising agency Point Blank was among those that said this week it would suspend business with the Pattison Group.
Chief executive officer Nat Wilson said it is increasingly important to call out bad actors given the “escalation of attacks and human-rights violations in the U.S.”
“The reversal of this decision is exactly why people need to speak out, hold the companies you do business with accountable and be willing to take your business elsewhere if their decisions don’t align with your values,” she said Friday.
Lauren Natale, a resident from Richmond, Va., who organized against the sale, welcomed the announcement Friday.
“This victory shows us what the power of the people can do – especially with the help of our friends in Canada and beyond,” she said.
“The U.S. federal government pretends to be all-powerful, but we refuse to allow authoritarianism in this nation.”
An earlier statement from Jim Pattison Developments said the sale remained subject to approvals and closing conditions, and that the company intended on “complying with all applicable laws.”
It said the company would not normally comment on a private transaction.
“However, we understand that the conversation around immigration policy and enforcement is particularly heated and has become much more so over the past few weeks,” it said. “We respect that this issue is deeply important to many people.”
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On Wednesday, the chief federal court judge in Minneapolis castigated ICE for failing to comply with 96 court orders across 74 immigration cases connected to its January operations in the state, adding that the figure is “almost certainly substantially understated.”
“This list should give pause to anyone – no matter his or her political beliefs – who cares about the rule of law,” Chief U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz wrote.
“ICE has likely violated more court orders than some federal agencies have violated in their entire existence.”
In the decade leading up to last summer, ICE had a typical annual budget of between US$8-billion and US$10-billion.
Then, Mr. Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act was signed into law on July 4, allocating ICE a supplement of US$75-billion over four years, on top of its base budget. The act specifically earmarked US$45-billion for detention centres.