ICE eyes massive Hanover warehouse for processing facility

Amid a national controversy over its enforcement tactics and mounting concerns from civil rights leaders, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement hopes to purchase a 552,576-square-foot warehouse in Hanover County that it plans to repurpose into a processing facility for detainees.

The county on Thursday received a letter from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security confirming its intent to purchase and operate the 43.49-acre site, located at 11525 Lakeridge Parkway in Ashland. The warehouse, built in 2024, had previously been marketed as a potential distribution center. The property is currently owned by Canadian real estate developer Jim Pattison Developments, based in Vancouver. According to county tax records, the site is expected to have an assessed value of $50.48 million this year.

DHS’s letter included plans to modify both the site and the warehouse itself to suit its needs. According to the department, the interior of the structure may be renovated or rebuilt to support ICE’s operations, which may include “construction of holding and processing spaces.”

However, the letter did not dive into many specifics on how the facility would operate, including how many people it would hold, details on whether it would be for short-term detention or longer-term detention, the number of ICE personnel involved and a project timeline.

ICE notified the county that it had 30 days to respond to the letter and offer comment on the proposed undertaking. In a notice posted Thursday on the county’s website, intended to keep residents informed, the county said it plans to respond within that time frame.

Hanover isn’t the only Virginia locality that may be in ICE’s sights. The Washington Post reported in December 2025 that the Trump administration is seeking to convert industrial warehouses into large-scale immigrant detention facilities, and that one of the potential sites under consideration is in Stafford County. However, a representative of Stafford’s planning department and the chief of staff for Board of Supervisors Chair Deuntay Diggs confirmed that the county has not yet received any proposal from ICE about a processing facility at this time.

According to a draft solicitation reviewed by The Post, the goal is to hold more than 80,000 detainees at a time. Under the plan, ICE would shift from its current method of shuttling detainees across the country to wherever detention space is available to a feeder system to speed deportations.

The Post reports that newly arrested detainees would be processed for a few weeks, then sent to one of seven large warehouses housing 5,000 to 10,000 people each, where they would be staged for deportation.

Controversy in Minneapolis

ICE has generated significant controversy in recent months. Earlier this month, an ICE agent shot and killed 37-year-old American citizen Renée Good during a large enforcement operation in Minneapolis, sparking widespread public outrage and protests.

This month, the American Civil Liberties Union and ACLU of Minnesota also filed a class-action lawsuit against the federal government, including ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, alleging suspicionless stops, racial profiling and unconstitutional arrests during an enforcement surge in the Twin Cities. Mark Bruley, police chief of the Minneapolis suburb Brooklyn Park, said this month that ICE had been targeting people of color, including off-duty police officers, demanding to see their identification papers, according to a report from The Washington Post.

“Virginians and Americans across the country want the law to be enforced in a way that actually makes our communities safer and doesn’t waste taxpayer dollars,” U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Virginia, said in a statement about the Hanover project. “The administration has yet to share a shred of information about how this reported ICE facility in Ashland would further that mission. There needs to be a meaningful opportunity for community engagement on this proposal.”

In one of her first actions after taking office, Gov. Abigail Spanberger rescinded former Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s executive order that deputized state police and law enforcement agencies to assist ICE in capturing illegal immigrants with criminal records in Virginia.

On Thursday, Richmond Mayor Danny Avula released a statement in response to ICE’s activities around the country, clarifying that federal immigration enforcement operates under its own authority and that Richmond’s government does not control ICE’s actions nor coordinate with it on deportation activities. He added that the Richmond Police Department has not entered into a 287(g) agreement with ICE and is not participating in enforcement of federal immigration law. The mayor rejects “any approach that creates fear, confusion or division,” he said.

Hanover County said it will consider any potential next steps at its regularly scheduled meeting on Wednesday, Jan. 28. The county said it would provide its next statement on the matter following the board of supervisors meeting.

Hanover County Board of Supervisors Chair Sean Davis said the board can’t make decisions without convening as a body. He noted the county is still reviewing information, seeking legal counsel and guidance from law enforcement. He said the county wants to ensure the information it provides is accurate and not “speculative information” about what authority it has in the matter.

“We want to be open. We want to be transparent — maximum disclosure, minimal delay, but at this point, the statement that we put out speaks for itself,” Davis said. “Because of the information that we have, we were just given notice yesterday, so we’re obviously in the process of reviewing that document.”

Hanover Supervisor Susan Dibble also said she would hold off commenting beyond the county statement until after the supervisors had met. Other county supervisors did not immediately return requests for comment.

DHS, ICE and Jim Pattison Developments did not immediately return requests for comment.

This month, DHS reported it has more than doubled its officers and agents from 10,000 to 22,000. In a Monday announcement trumpeting increased enforcement, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said the department had arrested over 10,000 people who entered the country illegally, which she described as “a huge victory for public safety.”