North Jersey Republicans support ICE detention centers. Just not in their town.

Republicans in New Jersey are being accused of having a hyper-NIMBY moment that is putting them at odds with their own party.

Last week, the Trump administration announced it purchased a sprawling warehouse property in Roxbury Township in North Jersey, which it plans to convert into an immigration detention facility with the capacity to hold 1,300 people. The Department of Homeland Security is paying a top-dollar price of $129.3 million for the site, according to deed records, more than double its 2026 tax assessment.

Affluent Roxbury has long been a Republican stronghold. And yet, local GOP leaders have both vocally opposed the plan for a detention facility in their community at the same time that they have voiced support for the president’s mass deportation policies.

That contrast was on full display at a township council meeting in Roxbury on Tuesday.

“I wanted to state once again that I'm not against ICE, DHS or detention centers as a tool to uphold our immigration laws. I don't support this location for very real and important reasons,” said Republican Councilmember Jim Rilee.

Those important reasons will sound familiar to anyone who has followed a fight over any development in the state's wealthier environs.

He pointed to questions about sewer and water capacity in the area and whether the infrastructure can support such a facility. Town records show that under a current permit, local sewage treatment providers have agreed to process 11,700 gallons of wastewater from the property per day, roughly for 160 people according to EPA estimates.

“I don’t know what [DHS’] intentions are. Hopefully they'll come to their senses,” he said. Roxbury Mayor Shawn Potillo chimed in to agree.

Residents, anti-ICE activists and Democratic leaders have accused them of hypocrisy.

“ Your statement is actually the definition of NIMBY,” Cory Herbert, a resident from nearby Parsippany, said in response to Rilee.

The Trump administration’s plans in Roxbury mirror its proposals in other parts of the country, where DHS has reportedly eyed large warehouses to hold immigrants detained by ICE before they are deported, including in Chester, New York; Indianapolis, Indiana; and Oakwood, Georgia.

The warehouse purchase in Roxbury has sparked fierce protest from many residents who have urged township officials to do more to stop the detention facility. Last month, the all-Republican Council voted 7-0 to pass a resolution opposing the facility.

Jenny Garcia, a Morris County resident and organizer with  American Friends Service Committee Immigrant Rights Program, a group that provides support and legal services for immigrant detainees and their families, called Rilee’s statements at Tuesday’s meeting “very contradictory.”

“You can't say that you don't support this detention center here while also saying that you support ICE in the actions that they're doing,” she told Gothamist. “The disclaimer, I think, rubs people the wrong way for sure.”

Republican Assemblymember Dawn Fantasia, who represents municipalities in New Jersey's 24th District, including Roxbury, has echoed township officials’ in her support for President Donald Trump’s deportation efforts, while also opposing those efforts from playing out in her district.

“Somehow we’re just supposed to absorb without any real discussion about what it means for water capacity, sewer limits, emergency response, and our schools. It’s time for a sober conversation,” Fantasia said in a statement on X after the sale was announced. She said she “absolutely” supports border and immigration enforcement in the same post.

Her fellow Republican assemblymember in the 24th District, Mike Inganamort, has also voiced his concerns about the detention facility.

At the same time, the duo has sponsored legislation that would give ICE more power to detain immigrants in New Jersey.

Democratic Assemblymember Katie Brennan from Jersey City  called the Republicans’ position “deeply hypocritical.”

“To spend years supporting ICE enforcement and then fight tooth and nail to keep a detention center out of your own backyard,” she said. ”If it's not okay for your neighborhood, then it shouldn't be okay anywhere.”

Brennan co-sponsored a number of recently introduced pieces of legislation seeking to limit ICE’s power in New Jersey, including one that would ban ICE employees from becoming public employees when they leave the agency. Another bill would place a 50% state tax on private detention facilities like the one that's being proposed in Roxbury.

“ The strategy is cut off their money, block their operations and ban them from public life,” she said.

Republican state Sen. Anthony Bucco, the Democratic-controlled state Senate's minority leader, also serves as Roxbury town attorney.

Numerous members of the public called for Bucco to resign from his town attorney post at this week’s council meeting, calling his work a conflict of interest and citing his support for ICE. At a Senate hearing earlier this month, Bucco criticized legislation that would limit local law enforcement’s cooperation with ICE. He opposes Sherrill’s proposal to create a state database of ICE interaction videos.

In a statement to Gothamist, Bucco said that from “day one,” he and the township have been united in opposing the detention facility in Roxbury.

“There are significant site-specific challenges that make it impractical and absolutely wrong for DHS to locate such a facility in our suburban community.

He said he asked the nonpartisan state Office of Legislative Services to review assertions that his legal work for the township posed a conflict of interest. A Feb. 25 letter from the office’s ethics counsel, Philip Mersinger, confirmed that nothing in the law prevents him from serving in both roles as township attorney and state senator.

“I would encourage everyone to rise above political theater and work together for the betterment of the township. I remain committed to representing the Township’s interests in the same principled manner as I have done for almost 30 years,” Bucco added.

Amol Sinha, executive director for the New Jersey ACLU, pushed back on Bucco and other Republicans’ assertions about site challenges and why they oppose the Roxbury facility. He argued the reason to oppose the Roxbury facility “should be that immigration detention is cruel and inhumane.”

“This is not just about cost savings or nimbyism. It's about making sure that we embrace the humanity of the residents of the state of New Jersey, including our immigrant brothers and sisters,” he said.