Georgia town planning for 'worst case scenario' ahead of ICE facility

Oakwood officials are preparing for the worst as an ICE facility is being built in their town. Additional training for police is costly.

It started with a call from a reporter with the Washington Post.

Officials in Oakwood, Georgia, about 50 miles northeast of Atlanta, had just heard that a 10,000-bed Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center was coming to another north Georgia town a few weeks earlier when the phone rang.

The reporter asked if Oakwood knew it was shortlisted for an ICE processing facility. No, this was the first they were hearing about it, officials told him.

In the weeks that followed, the city of less than 6,000 people prepared for two warehouses within their boundaries to be converted to an ICE processing facility. To their knowledge, detainees would be brought to Oakwood after being arrested, spend a few days there and then be transported to the larger and longer term detention facility in Social Circle, Georgia.

Oakwood officials are estimating costs over $2 million as water and sewer capacities are tested and their police force requires additional training. As of Feb. 27, the town has never been contacted by the Department of Homeland Security.