The Greensboro City Council is looking to address concerns around immigration detention centers in the city. On Tuesday, the council unanimously approved amendments to existing land-use ordinances that members say will add additional layers of scrutiny and security for any future proposals.
The concerns stem from last month’s American Civil Liberties Union report that indicated a private contractor was eyeing the old American Hebrew Academy as a potential detention site for use by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The documents released by the ACLU come on the heels of reporting by national outlets that show a concerted effort by ICE to expand its operations across the country.
The city says it has not received any communication from the federal government about using any Greensboro sites for immigration detention. Sources with the American Hebrew Academy also told the Assembly they had not been contacted by anyone.
During Tuesday’s meeting, City Attorney Lora Cubbage explained in detail the changes to the ordinance and how they add more protection in the event any entity attempts to open a detention center in Greensboro.
“It’s a clarification of a zoning classification for buildings that are purchased within our city limits that was not included in our existing zoning classification in the current language,” Cubbage said.
The ordinance changes apply citywide.
Why Did the City Make the Change?
Adding detention facilities as a land use category within the city’s ordinances means applicants have to go through the same level of scrutiny as other facilities that are already included in the ordinances, such as correctional institutions.
Including secure detention and custodial facilities as a specific use means any entity attempting to open one in the city has to go through multiple steps to make it a reality. For example, the applicant would have to apply for zoning if the property is not zoned for detention and also request the land to be permitted as “special use,” which comes with more scrutiny than “permitted use.”
“Special uses,” according to the UNC School of Government, are “deemed to warrant careful review either because they are potentially appropriate anywhere within the zoning district, but only if carefully designed to meet the standards, or because they are potentially harmful wherever they are located unless carefully designed.”
Other properties currently categorized by the city as special use include correctional institutions or jails.
If the applicant gets zoning approval and gets the special use permit, the request would then be given a public hearing and go before the council for a vote.
“So with this text amendment, what it does is…it ensures that there is not one, not two, but now three levels of scrutiny that it has to go through before someone can just decide how they’re going to use a building within our city,” Cubbage said Tuesday.
But there’s more.
With the new amendments, anyone who wanted to purchase a property to build a detention center would have to ensure it isn’t within 2,500 feet of residential zoning, schools, parks, child-care facilities, places of religious assembly, or hospitals and other healthcare facilities. That would appear to render the old American Hebrew Academy as ineligible, given its proximity to residential neighborhoods and Temple Emanuel. Additionally, the property cannot be within one mile of another detention center.
If an applicant wanted to build a site within these restrictions, they would have to go before the board of adjustments to ask for a variance.
The amendment also states that once an applicant gets a special-use permit, the maximum occupancy of the center cannot be changed or increased.
“So…we are voting to allow that extra level of scrutiny should someone come and purchase a building for a use that we would have to look at,” said Mayor Marikay Abuzuaiter.
How Did the Public React?
Before council voted, several speakers expressed their support for the amendments and applauded its efforts to make it more difficult to build detention centers in the city. But several also implored council to go a step further.
Carmen Calhoun acknowledged the change in the ordinance as an “important first step” in preventing a detention center, but she hopes more legislation is coming down the line.
“While zoning regulations are a start,” she said. “And I’m grateful for that, they’re not enough.”
Calhoun went on to express how other municipalities across the country have limited local resources and cooperation with federal immigration enforcement in the wake of mass roundups of both undocumented and documented US residents. Another speaker urged council to make it clear the city would not cooperate with the sale or lease of any city property for a proposed detention facility and that the police department would not cooperate with such enforcement activities.
Andrew Garcés, an organizer with the immigrant advocacy organization Siembra NC, also pushed for more action.
“I think that city staff and city council members are trying to create more safety, more constitutional protections,” he said. “But I think the question I still have is, given that no one in this city would approve of a detention center…why wouldn’t anyone who can make policy just vote that they will never support this use? Why wouldn’t they just vote and say, ‘We won’t ever do that?’”
While the city did pass the ordinance changes on Tuesday, the city attorney was careful to express that the amendments do not “target any group” and they don’t “attempt to interfere with any federal law or action.”
“This city local government cannot regulate, interrupt, or interfere with any federal law or enforcement action in any way due to the supremacy clause in the Constitution,” Cubbage said. “And I think that’s worth the community understanding.”
In her remarks Tuesday, former Pastor Julie Peeples, who spoke with the Assembly last month, urged city council to take any measure they could to resist the federal government’s mass deportation efforts.
“Please, officials, oppose this any way you can,” she said. “Including the proposed action now that clarifies and strengthens our local codes and regulations. Use every available tool. Hold fast to the authority given to you by the voters, the people. Be transparent with us, proactive, and we will be right here fighting with you.”