{"id":459,"date":"2026-06-16T15:34:28","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T15:34:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/northcarolinamovingjournal.com\/?p=459"},"modified":"2026-06-16T15:34:28","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T15:34:28","slug":"qa-what-deborah-ross-saw-inside-the-ice-processing-facility-in-cary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/northcarolinamovingjournal.com\/?p=459","title":{"rendered":"Q&A: What Deborah Ross saw inside the ICE processing facility in Cary"},"content":{"rendered":"
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U.S. Rep. Deborah Ross says the complaints her office receives about immigration detention rarely involve the ICE processing facility in Cary.<\/span><\/p>\n

Read more Author Dr. Katharine Wilkinson discusses efforts to combat the global climate emergency<\/a><\/p>\n

Instead, Ross said, concerns typically arise after people are transferred to the Stewart Detention Center in Georgia, where North Carolinians can spend months in federal custody.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ross recently toured the Cary facility with Rep. Valerie Foushee as part of a congressional oversight visit. She said the site functions primarily as a short-term processing center where people are held for only a few hours before being transported elsewhere.<\/span><\/p>\n

NC Newsline spoke with Ross about what she observed during the visit, and why she is pushing for a congressional inspection of the Georgia facility.<\/span><\/p>\n

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.<\/span><\/p>\n

Can you describe what you saw during your visit to the Cary facility?<\/b><\/p>\n

Ross: It\u2019s not a big processing center. It\u2019s just a small facility. There are two things that go on in the facility, and we went through every nook and cranny.<\/span><\/p>\n

There\u2019s an ICE processing facility where they bring in people who have been picked up by ICE and process them before they go to the Stewart facility in Georgia. People come in through a secure bay and then go to a processing area. There are three holding cells \u2014 one for women and two for men. One of the men\u2019s holding cells is for people who are violent offenders because they don\u2019t want somebody who overstayed a visa in a cell with a violent criminal.<\/span><\/p>\n

People stay in those holding cells only a couple of hours, and then a van picks them up and takes them to the Stewart facility in Georgia. We saw everything, including cameras that allowed us to see into the holding cells. At the time we were there, there were not many people in the cells, and there were not many people being processed. It was actually kind of a quiet situation.<\/span><\/p>\n

They\u2019re equipped to process people, but those people don\u2019t stay for a long time, so it\u2019s not like they have beds or anything like that.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been to processing facilities at the border in Texas. This was not anything like that.<\/span><\/p>\n

The other part of the building is Homeland Security. It may help ICE, but it deals with things such as drug trafficking, human trafficking and cybersecurity. We went to that part of the facility, too, and talked to the person in charge, who has worked there for five years.<\/span><\/p>\n

Why did you decide to visit the facility?<\/b><\/p>\n

I wanted to see what was happening in my district. That\u2019s not the first time I\u2019ve been to that facility.<\/span><\/p>\n

Before the Trump administration, that facility was considered a friendly facility for people who had immigration issues they were trying to resolve. In the past, our area wanted a Homeland Security and ICE facility because, without one, people would have had to drive to Charlotte to do normal things such as international adoptions and visa extensions.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Billions for the next 3 years of Trump\u2019s mass deportation campaign signed into law<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n