South Jersey officials have blasted plans for an immigrant detention center at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst.
“This is an inappropriate use of our national defense system and military resources,” multiple federal legislators said Friday in a letter that condemned the Trump Administration’s decision “in the strongest possible terms.”
The letter said the plan “jeopardizes military preparedness and paves the way for ICE immigration raids in every New Jersey community.” It also said using the military “as a domestic political tool is unacceptable and shameful.”
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U.S. Rep. Herb Conaway Jr., a Burlington County Democrat, released a letter from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth about plans to use the Burlington County base “to house illegal aliens.”
Hegseth’s letter, which misspelled Conaway’s name, asserted the “temporary use” by the Department of Homeland Security “will not negatively affect military training, operations, readiness or other military requirements, including National Guard and Reserve readiness.”
Hegseth’s letter included no details about the planned detention center, including when it might open and how many people would be confined there.
The South Jersey base has previously housed migrants coming to the United States from former war zones in Afghanistan and Bosnia.
Those signing the letter included Conaway, U.S. Rep. Donald Norcross, a Democrat from Camden County, and Senator Andy Kim, a Democrat and longtime resident of South Jersey.
Signatories also included Senator Cory Booker and U.S. Reps. Bonnie Watson Coleman, Rob Menendez, Frank Pallone, Nellie Pou, LaMonica McIver and Josh Gottheimer, all Democrats from elsewhere in the state.
No Republican legislators signed the letter.
U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew, a Republican from Cape May County, could not be reached for immediate comment.
Also Friday, Burlington County’s commissioners released a statement critical of the plan.
It said “people who are unlawfully present in our country should be lawfully returned to their home country.”
But the statement also said the board was “increasingly concerned about overaggressive enforcement actions” by federal immigration agents.
“Instead of making our country stronger, they cause fear and division, and that has no place in our federal military installations or in Burlington County,” said the all-Democratic board.
Jim Walsh is a senior reporter with the Courier-Post, Burlington County Times and The Daily Journal. Email: Jwalsh@cpsj.com.
This article originally appeared on Cherry Hill Courier-Post: Fury over plan for migrant detention center at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst