Federal immigration authorities have purchased a property in Walton County, Georgia, with plans to use it as a large immigration detention center as early as April, CBS Atlanta reports.
Up to 10,000 detainees are able to be housed at the facility located less than a mile from Social Circle Elementary School.
City officials say they were not involved in key stages of the process nor were they included in an engineering evaluation of city utilities conducted by the Department of Homeland Security.
type="doubleclick" data-slot="/21868623726/site264.tmus/amp2" data-multi-size="320x50,300x250" data-multi-size-validation="false" rtc-config='{"vendors": {"prebidappnexuspsp": {"PLACEMENT_ID": "27198239"}}, "timeoutMillis": 500}'>“The City of Social Circle has been informed by multiple sources that the sale of 1365 E. Hightower Trail has been completed. PNK no longer owns the facility; ICE is now the owner. The City of Social Circle will continue to monitor developments and will share confirmed information with the public as it becomes available,” the city said in a statement.
Many worry the project will overwhelm local resources in the small town of approximately 5,000. In December 2025, the City of Social Circle denied the building of the facility, calling it “infeasible.”
“A key reason that such a facility is infeasible is because the City does not have the water and sewer infrastructure to support this type of facility. Current capacity limitations would not support a development of the size described in media reports. This proposal could result in an effective tripling of the City’s population that is hovering right around 5,000 citizens.”
To date ICE has made approximately 393,000 arrests nationwide from President Donald Trump’s inauguration through Jan. 31, 2026. Nearly 40% of those arrested by ICE in the past year had no criminal record and were detained for civil immigration offenses.
“There are people in this town who support what ICE is doing and people who oppose it, but this has managed to bring everybody together,” said Rick Burt, a Social Circle resident and activist, according to CBS Atlanta.
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