Thursday, February 25, 2010 AT 10:51PM
ICE hearing speakers split on new facility
By MELISSA SáNCHEZ


YAKIMA, Wash. -- In a long and sometimes emotionally charged hearing Thursday, about two dozen people testified for or against a proposed federal office building that would include cells to temporarily hold immigration detainees.

At issue was whether the project meets zoning requirements where it's proposed off Washington Avenue, but the three-plus-hour hearing become a platform for often contentious debate over illegal immigration.

"We are heavily inundated with illegal immigrants," said Yakima resident Sandi Belzer Brendale. "(Immigration Customs and Enforcement) needs a place to work out of."

She and members of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps., Grassroots of Yakima Valley and Tea Party organizations spoke in favor of building a 24,000-square-foot facility with parking for 135 vehicles for the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Others didn't see the benefits.

"Our community is already segregated," said David Uribe, a Yakima Valley Community College student who spoke against the proposal. "This will only bring more racial tension to both communities."

The proposed building would replace ICE operations that already exist in Yakima but are spread out, Lorie Dankers, a spokeswoman for the federal agency, said in a phone interview.

Dankers has been critical of reports calling the facility a jail. It's more a processing area, she said last week. However, no representatives from ICE or the federal agency seeking a lease on ICE's behalf were present at Thursday's hearing.

Ross Buffington, a spokesman for U.S. General Services Administration, said in a phone interview Thursday from his office in Auburn, Wash., that his agency has received more than one proposal for a leased space in Yakima for ICE operations since it began seeking bids last April.

"Any speculation about where a new building might be located or who might be awarded the lease is premature," he said.

"Our plans are to have a lease in the near future," Buffington said, but he could not say when.

The city of Yakima's planning staff are recommending against a zoning variance for the facility. And neighboring businesses have filed an environmental appeal against the project.

During Thursday's hearing, adjacent business owners and senior citizens living in a mobile park nearby were careful to say they aren't opposed to enforcing immigration law.

"I have nothing against ICE ... and I'm not prejudiced. I have a lot of Spanish friends," said Rhonda Anderson, whose mother lives in the nearby Broadmoor Mobile Home Park. "But it would only take one jump over the fence to get to the people's backyards.

"If they know they're going to be deported, what do they have to lose? It just takes one jump and they can run."

Business owners said they're concerned about too many pedestrians on their private road. They wonder how many detainees will be brought to the center, and whether their families or children will visit.

"We need an ICE facility ... but we don't need it in our neighborhood because of the traffic," said Neill Hauff, whose company makes wind machines and orchard sprayers on Presson Place, where the four-acre site is proposed.

The facility would consist mostly of office space for 41 employees and would be open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays.

It would also have four detention rooms to process suspected illegal immigrants, and a detainee visitors booth. Developers for the project and ICE officials have repeatedly stated the facility shouldn't be misconstrued as a jail because it won't keep detainees overnight.

ICE officials say detainees would be processed at the proposed facility before being transferred to the Yakima County jail or a federal holding facility in Tacoma.

There will be no beds at the proposed facility, according to Jundt-Eglin, the Yakima-based company that owns the land and is developing the project in hopes of leasing it to ICE.

As the hearing wrapped up Thursday, hearing examiner Gary Cuillier commended all participants for the discussion.

"We have gone kind of back and forth, but it's important to the parties," he said. "It's not going to be an easy decision."

Cuillier is expected to issue a decision by March 11. Both sides, however, indicated they would appeal to the City Council if they lost.



* Melissa Sánchez can be reached at msanchez@yakimaherald.com.


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