Through their attorneys, Department of Homeland Security officials told Salt Lake City leaders that they “no longer intend to convert” a Salt Lake City warehouse purchased earlier this year for $145.4 million with now abandoned plans to turn it into a massive detention center.
That’s according to new court documents filed Wednesday, in which Salt Lake City attorneys asked a judge to push pause on the lawsuit the city filed in June against DHS seeking to block the detention center.
City attorneys filed Wednesday’s motion for a 60-day stay in light of DHS and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s reversal, the filing says.
“On July 17, 2026, Defendants, through counsel, informed Plaintiffs that they no longer intend to convert the Salt Lake Warehouse into an immigration detention facility and instead intend to designate the Salt Lake Facility as excess property for disposition by the General Services Administration,” Salt Lake City attorneys wrote in the motion.
That filing confirms earlier reporting by The New York Times that the Department of Homeland Security planned to offload seven warehouses across the country, including the one in Salt Lake City.
“In light of this development,” Salt Lake City attorneys wrote, city and federal officials “have conferred and agree this case should be stayed” for 60 days as stipulated in the city’s proposed motion, which requires the Department of Homeland Security to not “take any action to convert the Salt Lake (warehouse) into an immigration detention center during the stay.”
As of Wednesday evening, the proposed motion filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah had not yet been signed.
Through a spokesperson, Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall’s office declined to comment on the filing, citing pending litigation.
The Salt Lake City warehouse, one of ICE’s most expensive purchases as part of a planned $45 billion expansion of immigration detention centers across the country, was purchased just days after DHS Secretary Kristi Noem was fired.
In the months after, uncertainty swirled around what would come of the Salt Lake warehouse as DHS officials said they were “reviewing agency policies and proposals” as it transitioned under newly sworn-in Secretary Markwayne Mullin’s leadership.
Democratic local leaders including Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall and Salt Lake County Mayor Jenny Wilson fought vehemently against any possibility of the warehouse being turned into a detention center large enough to hold up to 10,000 people.
They raised concerns ranging from overtaxed city water and sewer systems, air pollution and a burden on already strained police resources.
“This kind of facility has no place in Salt Lake City,” Mendenhall said in June, “not only due to its inhumane nature but also because of our limited water supply, the increased strain on public utilities systems, and the potentially drastic public health and safety impacts it would have on our residents.”
Originally published on utahnewsdispatch.com, part of the BLOX Digital Content Exchange.
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