On June 9, Uproar Utah put the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on notice that we are taking them to court to block their plan to herd up to 10,000 desperate people — a population the size of Vernal or Alpine — into a massive indoor stockyard in Salt Lake City — a stockyard not for cattle, but for people.

We are concerned citizens, and we are in an uproar over a rogue agency that breaks the law and tramples our rights.

ICE broke the law — the National Environmental Policy Act and the Administrative Procedures Act — with its plan to convert a 833,000-square-foot warehouse into a jail without considering environmental impacts.

They trampled our rights by failing to consult our elected federal, state and local leaders about building one of the biggest, most expensive monster immigrant jails in America here in Salt Lake City.

They are breaking the law by further endangering the Great Salt Lake, which is already facing collapse.

The daily removal from the water supply of up to 2 million gallons required to operate the warehouse jail will cause a measurable reduction in the level of the Great Salt Lake and an accompanying expansion of exposed lakebed with its heavy content of dangerous toxins available for transport to 2.66 million people “downwind.”

They are creating a public health and humanitarian catastrophe. Public reporting of conditions in smaller ICE detention facilities around the country reveals troubling evidence of infectious disease outbreaks, sewage problems, poor food, incompetent medical care and generally unsanitary and inhumane conditions. Multiply that by 20 times at a warehouse jail in Salt Lake City.

In Salt Lake City, ICE will carry on its morally repugnant scheme that separates children from their parents. The Brookings Institution estimates that so far, about 100,000 children have been separated from their parents by the Trump administration during interior enforcement operations.

These are crystal-clear examples of a federal agency run amok, violating the basic requirements of federal law. But there’s a deeper reason we are filing a lawsuit. It is not something you will find in a complaint filed in federal court or in a federal statute.

Cramming thousands of immigrants into an overcrowded warehouse jail denies them the dignity they are due as human beings. Every human being is born with human dignity. It is our birthright — part of who we are. It doesn’t depend on age, gender, religion, wealth or immigration status. Dignity is the inherent, inalienable right of every human being.

There is no way to respect the human dignity of 10,000 men, women and children jammed into a warehouse jail. By definition, the idea is insane and inhumane. It is contrary to Utah’s values. It is not who we are.

We Utahns told the world in our Utah Compact on Immigration:

“We oppose policies that unnecessarily separate families.”

“Utah’s immigration policies must reaffirm our global reputation as a welcoming … state.

“Immigrants are integrated into communities across Utah. We must adopt a humane approach to this reality.”

Are these commitments going to be kept?

ICE’s warehouse jail will not be for the worst of the worst. It will be filled mostly with people who have committed no crimes at all — decent, hard-working, tax-paying people pursuing the American dream. Should we arrest and deport them, when for decades one president and Congress after another allowed them to stay here by default — people who are our neighbors and friends, who sit next to us in church, work in our yards, on our farms and in our hotels and shops? Today they are lying low out of fear. Perhaps 13 million people in America are feeling a heightened level of fear.

Fear of what? Fear of the knock on the door — perhaps in the middle of the night. Fear of four or five burly men are on the doorstep with masks and drawn weapons, uttering the blood-curdling words “We’re from ICE.” They say, “You, dad, are coming with us; you, mom, are coming with us. You, how old are you? Fourteen? You’re in charge of the younger kids now. Do you have an aunt or uncle nearby? You’d better call them.” By now the children are screaming, the parents are crying. There’s no time to pack a suitcase. They’re out the door and on their way to the warehouse jail.

For how long? There’s a deportation case backlog of perhaps 50,000 in Utah’s immigration court. Court dates are being set years into the future.

Are we allowed by the God in heaven to force people into a warehouse jail for months or years? There is no necessity for it. Data show that immigrants do show up for court appointments. In the past, they went free while waiting for their court appointments. There is no good reason that should not be the case now.

We will file our lawsuit because, in the words of Ronald Reagan, “We lead the world because, unique among nations, we draw our people – our strength – from every country and every corner of the world. And by doing so we continuously renew and enrich our nation.”

“This,” he said, “is one of the most important sources of America’s greatness.”

Brent Ward is a Salt Lake City attorney and former United States Attorney for Utah. Uproar is an arm of the Utah Refugee Justice League, a 501(c)(3) public charity.

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