Ever since the Washington Post broke the story on Christmas Eve that the Trump administration is converting warehouse spaces across the country into literal human warehouses, the towns named in the story have been playing catch up.
Last Friday, the Post shared how one of these communities is trying to get answers, to no avail. Social Circle, Ga. — a town of 5,000 residents — is rightfully concerned about the administration’s plans to warehouse 9,000 humans there when their water and sewer systems already are near capacity. Social Circle’s city manager cannot get any answers from his congressman, two senators or Gov. Brian Kemp.
So the city manager did some digging of his own. He narrowed the site down to one location, “a vacant 1 million-square-foot warehouse on the edge of town that was completed last year.”
There is much in common with Social Circle, Ga., and Hutchins, Texas, a town in Southeast Dallas County also named as future site of one of the seven large warehouses the administration envisions.
As I wrote previously, Hutchins is 30 miles from my home. Shortly after New Year’s I spent several days driving around the town of 5,000 residents getting the lay of the land and trying to understand which of the many warehouses there might be converted. I also have been anxiously waiting to hear from the elected officials in Hutchins.
On Friday, the mayor of Hutchins, Mario Vasquez, issued a statement to WFAA, our local ABC affiliate, saying: “The warehouses we have are for storage, not for holding people. It’s something we don’t need in our city and something we don’t want.”
Crucially, the story notes Hutchins “currently only has one warehouse available for lease, which is about 1 million square feet.”
Today I visited that warehouse situated at I-45 and I-20.
Anyone familiar with the horrors of human sex trafficking in this country knows I-20 stretching from Texas to South Carolina is a major route for traffickers. That this human warehouse will sit on this corridor for human trafficking seems on-brand for our government these days.
The warehouse also sits adjacent to the Hutchins State Jail, which reports to have a capacity of 2,276 inmates and is situated on 70 acres.
Meanwhile, the likely warehouse in question, owned by California-based Majestic Realty, sits on nearly 62 acres and, according to the story from the Post, is expected to house 9,500 humans.
The online photo carousel for the property includes interior images and highlights the “generous skylights” and “161 dock-high doors.”
Like the town of Social Circle, Ga., Hutchins, Texas, does not have the necessary water and sewage infrastructure to grow by 150% in a matter of months.
In addition to the quality-of-life issues posed to the residents of Hutchins, one has to wonder if the various big-name companies who moved their warehouses there will want a human warehouse on their block.
The warehouse sits adjacent to one of the largest FedEx distribution centers in the country and down the road from warehouse facilities for Arhaus Furniture, Amazon and more.
As the Hutchins mayor noted, these warehouses are for storage, not for holding people. It’s not something any town in America needs or wants.
Mara Richards Bim serves as a Clemons Fellow with BNG and as the first Justice and Advocacy Fellow at Royal Lane Baptist Church in Dallas where she recently was ordained to the gospel ministry. She earned the master of divinity degree and a certificate in spiritual direction from Perkins School of Theology at SMU. She also is an award-winning theater artist and founder of the nationally acclaimed Cry Havoc Theater Company, which operated in Dallas from 2014 to 2023.
Related article:
Trump preparing to warehouse immigrants like cargo | Opinion by Mara Richards Bim