OKC site considered for use as ICE office

Immigrant rights advocates expressed dismay Wednesday over a federal agency’s plans for a detention facility and offices in a west Oklahoma City office park.

The Office of Enforcement & Removal Operations is the arm of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, that enforces immigration laws.

Documents submitted to the city say the office would be outfitted with secured interview rooms and space for about 65 administrative personnel and investigators.

The Rev. Lori Walke said Wednesday the faith community is concerned increased ICE presence would weaken bonds among residents and compromise public safety in the city.

“ICE presence has a chilling effect on the reporting of crime, particularly domestic violence,” said Walke, associate minister of Mayflower Congregational United Church of Christ.

“Their job is to arrest and remove our neighbors,” she said.

Walke is an organizer of a weekly prayer vigil outside an office building in another part of town that advocates say is used by federal immigration authorities.

An ICE spokesman in Dallas, Carl Rusnok, had not responded by Wednesday evening to questions about the facility, including whether it constitutes an expansion by the agency in Oklahoma City.

According to city documents, Enforcement & Removal Operations intends to occupy renovated space in a one-story, 16,987-square-foot building at

1220 Sovereign Row.

The building is surrounded primarily by offices and warehouses between I-40 and the Oklahoma River. Meridian Avenue hotels and restaurants are a block away.

According to its website, Enforcement & Removal Operations identifies, arrests and removes “aliens who present a danger to national security or are a risk to public safety.”

Plans for the building include conference rooms and a fitness center.

Outside, the property is to be enclosed by an 8-foot Impasse II highsecurity steel palisade fence and an 8-foot-high chain-link fence topped with razor wire.

Sliding gates will have electronic locks and controls.

No one will be held overnight at the facility, according to a description of how the office will operate.

Comings and goings will be concealed from the public by a sally port, where vehicles will drop off and pick up individuals brought to the office to be interviewed.

When investigators determine individuals should be detained beyond an interview, they will be turned over to local law enforcement or U.S. marshals, the documents say.

The building owner had filed an application with the city for a “forced detention and correction facility.”

However, the owner’s attorney, David Box, said Wednesday he had determined the permit was not required and that

he would withdraw the request.

The request was slated to be reviewed by the Planning Commission on Thursday.

Withdrawal would have no effect on plans to have ICE occupy the building, Box said.

Raul Font, executive director of the Latino Community Development Agency, said the facility would heighten fear among immigrants.

Trust is in short supply among residents who “have been used as pawns” in their home countries and, he said, are now being used as pawns in the United States.

Font characterized immigration enforcement as a “vigilante approach” toward people who have proved to be an economic asset to Oklahoma.

“Now it’s fear,” he said. “That’s what this facility is going to heighten.”