Anger and calls for oversight at council meeting over ICE facility; administration says ICE says it is in compliance

Dozens of Ogden residents, educators and activists packed a March 24 council meeting to press elected officials for action over operations at a nearby U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) processing facility. Speakers presented FOIA/DHS‑derived data, photographs and personal accounts they say show the facility holding people beyond permitted hours and operating at greater intensity than when its conditional use permit was issued in 2000.

Before public comment began, Chief Administrative Officer Mara Brown told the chamber the city had contacted the ICE field office and had been told the site is used for processing only and that individuals are not held overnight. “At this time, it appears that ICE is in full compliance with the conditional use permit that was issued 26 years ago,” Brown said, adding that federal supremacy limits a city’s authority to restrict a federal agency’s statutory functions.

Community members disagreed. David Belknap of Ogden Ice Watch listed a series of alleged problems based on a DHS disclosure, including what he described as kennel‑style holding areas without beds or adequate sanitary facilities, restricted restroom capacity, and unsafe storage of flammable materials inside the facility. “When individuals are held overnight, they are left sitting in chairs or lying on concrete floors without blankets, pillows, or basic accommodations,” Belknap said.

Demetrius Pagonis, who has analyzed the DHS dataset, told the council the composition of detainees has changed in the past year and urged the city to use the documented data and photos to reconsider whether the facility remains compliant with the conditions under which it was approved. “If you look through this data, you see that across Utah now, more than half of the people that they're detaining have no prior convictions,” Pagonis said.

Residents raised public‑safety and schooling concerns: teachers and school staff described students skipping school, carrying fear, and worried about the risk that immigration enforcement actions would touch classrooms. Health professionals said the fear of enforcement is already reducing access to local health services for immigrant residents.

Speakers urged specific accountability steps the council or administration could take: request and accompany fire and health inspections, direct administration to initiate formal code‑compliance reviews of the conditional use permit, ask the county to review local jailing contracts used by ICE, and draft resolutions or ordinances modeled on actions taken by other U.S. cities to limit local cooperation with federal immigration enforcement or protect sensitive locations.

Council members acknowledged the public testimony and the existence of data and photos that community members supplied. Several asked administration and staff to verify the dataset’s provenance and pursue inspections. One council member said they had emailed to request a fire inspection and sought to accompany the inspector; leadership discussed scheduling a special work session before the next regular meeting so the council can review evidence and talk about possible actions.

The council did not enact immediate local restrictions at the meeting. Officials urged the public to provide materials to staff and announced they would examine the data and follow up with inspections and additional meetings to discuss potential steps the city can take within the limits of local authority.