Booker, Kim Introduce Legislation to End Trump’s Warehouse Detention in New Jersey and Nationwide

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Andy Kim (D-NJ) introduced the End Warehouse Detention Act to prohibit the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from using taxpayer dollars, taken through Trump's "Big Disastrous Reconciliation Bill," to purchase warehouses or to use warehouses to detain non-citizens. The legislation builds on the Senators' joint efforts to end warehouse detention and follows previous work alongside members of the New Jersey Democratic Congressional Delegation to stop DHS from opening a warehouse detention facility in Roxbury Township, New Jersey.

"New Jerseyans have made it clear: we will not allow detention centers to turn our communities into places of fear. I have walked through one of these warehouses and seen firsthand how these facilities are no place for human beings," said Senator Booker. "This legislation will ensure that not one more taxpayer dollar is used to buy, contract, or convert warehouses into harmful, inhumane detention centers."

"Donald Trump is using the money he and Congressional Republicans took from working families' healthcare to fund his cruelty and open detention facilities that our communities have made clear we want no part of. Like in Roxbury, people across the country are standing up against this inhumanity, and Congress needs to stand with them. These are our tax dollars - not a slush fund for this administration's lawlessness, " said Senator Kim.

The End Warehouse Detention Act would prohibit DHS from using funds provided in the "Big Disastrous Reconciliation Bill" (officially named the One Big Beautiful Bill Act/OBBBA) to purchase a warehouse, contract with the owner of a warehouse for detention purposes, and also prohibits them from using OBBBA funds to repurpose, operate, staff, or maintain already purchased warehouses like the one in Roxbury.

Over the course of Trump's second term, both New Jersey Senators have been working against ICE detention policies in New Jersey and nationwide, including calling for the closure of private detention facilities like Delaney Hall in Newark, New Jersey.

To read the full text of the bill, click here.