About 40 people gathered at 443 Jefferson Boulevard Sunday to rally against a facility that  the United States Immigration and Custom Enforcement is close to completing.

“I think it went pretty well. I think we brought a lot of visibility to what has previously been a quiet almost secretive process,” said Nathan Levin-Aspenson an organizer with Never Again Action Rhode Island. 

Never Again Action is a national “Jewish-led mobilization against the persecution, detention and deportation of immigrants in the United States.”

In August an electrical permit application was filed with the city for the former Citizens Bank building that ICE plans to use for “office and short-term detention.”

That led to speculation on social media and in the community as to what would be built there. 

“ICE is not building a new detention facility in Warwick, Rhode Island.  ICE is completing work on sub-office for Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) in that area,” said Rachael Yong Yow, a spokesperson for the agency. “The ERO sub-office will be set up as an office space and will have a processing center with holding rooms.”

According to an ICE spokesperson “following an arrest, the non-citizen is taken to the nearest ERO office for processing.  This area is for ERO officers to process the non-citizen, which includes, but is not limited to, interview, fingerprint, photograph and serving of paperwork. This space will also have holding rooms that are used as a waiting area before the non-citizen is either transferred to a detention facility or released on an alternative to detention program.”

The spokesperson, said, “per ICE policy, the maximum time frame a non-citizen is held in a holding room is 12 hours, but processing is typically completed within 2-3 hours.”

One of the places that Never Again Action Rhode Island has protested against is the Wyatt Detention Center, a private prison in Central Falls known over the years for the housing of ICE detainees. 

“To be clear we know that they aren’t building a second Wyatt Detention Center in Warwick. But what they are building there is still immoral and will be used for a purpose that we think is terrible,” said Levin-Aspenson. 

Levin-Aspenson said that on a local level the response that they have heard from elected officials is that their hands are tied. 

“I don’t know if that is entirely true but I can see why they believe that,” said Levin-Aspenson. 

When the issue first emerged in November, Mayor Frank Picozzi wrote on Facebook, “I’ve gotten a few inquiries yesterday and today as to whether ICE is building a facility in Warwick,” the post read. “The short answer is yes, the whole answer is that it's a new processing center to replace an existing facility that has been here in the City for years. This was set in motion quite a while ago before I took office. There are no zoning issues and the Federal Government doesn’t answer to us. It didn’t require the permission of the Mayor’s office or the City Council.”

According to the city’s building department, ICE would be using about half of the 42,000 square foot building.

During Sunday’s rally state Rep. David Morales from Providence spoke to the crowd. 

“With a stroke of the pen, the literal stroke of a pen, we can pass laws to prohibit our state and local governments from contracting with ICE, we can pass legislation to shut down the Wyatt Detention Center, and we can demand that the Warwick City Council take legal action against these detention cells,” said Morales. “We can and must act on all of these issues, so don’t you ever believe the spokespeople from the US Department of Homeland Security or any politicians who say that there is nothing we can do to stop ICE’s rapid expansion.” 

When asked if he thinks their efforts to stop the facility will be successful, Levin-Aspenson said “we're going to try.”

Building Official Al DeCorte said that he walked through the building about three weeks ago and they were close to moving towards finish work. 

An inquiry to ICE about when the facility would be completed went unreturned at the time of publication. 

“If we can’t stop it from being turned into an ICE facility by the time they finish construction then we're going to stop it afterwards,” said Levin-Aspenson.  “We're not going to go away, we live here. ICE has chosen that they want to do business here. We think that Rhode Island is not a place that should be the home of the genocidal machine that ICE perpetrates.”