A warehouse that is the site for a planned U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centre in Williamsport, Maryland.Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is temporarily pausing plans to use large warehouses to detain immigrants, a Trump administration official and a second source familiar with the matter said, as its new secretary, Markwayne Mullin, reviews one of his predecessor’s most controversial policies.
Under Mullin’s predecessor, Kristi Noem, the department planned to spend US$38.3-billion by the end of the year on detention centres to hold and process tens of thousands of immigrants, documents showed. The plan has sparked backlash in several communities where the centres were planned.
The Washington Post reported on Friday on an internal memo that described a slowdown in the process of issuing contracts to convert the warehouses.
DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.