Arizona has sued the federal government to block a proposed Immigration and Customs Enforcement mass detention facility near a site in the city of Surprise allegedly filled with hazardous chemicals.  They may be unable to stop ICE. 

     "The Trump administration has run roughshod over federal law in its rush to expand detention capacity across the country," Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, whose office filed the lawsuit Friday, said in a statement. 

     Mayes claims the Department of Homeland Security and ICE have not conducted or publicized the required environmental reviews for opening a facility. The lawsuit also alleges the proposed facility — which could house anywhere from hundreds to up to 1,500 individuals — violates the Immigration and Nationality Act, which mandates the federal government arrange for "appropriate" places for immigration detention.  

     An ICE spokesperson told CBS News that before purchasing this site, the agency carefully evaluated the use of existing facilities to help minimize environmental impacts, "including potential impacts to protected species, sensitive natural resources, and valued cultural resources."  Congress appropriated $45 billion to ICE in July 2025 for "single adult alien detention capacity and family residential center capacity," to remain available for obligation through September 2029, the lawsuit said. One of those recently acquired processing sites is the warehouse in the city of Surprise, which court documents said the federal government purchased for $70 million on Jan. 23. 

     The federal government has issued contracts for over $300 million to retrofit the warehouse.  The lawsuit alleges the warehouse was not constructed as a space to house hundreds of people, but as an industrial distribution facility for up to four commercial tenants. Court documents say the warehouse "sits directly across the street from a chemical storage facility containing thousands of gallons of hazardous materials." The warehouse includes more than 100,000 feet of containerized hazardous materials storage for chemicals used in semiconductor production, according to the lawsuit.