Freeze placed on ICE project

YAKIMA, Wash. -- Citing budget problems, federal officials have withdrawn plans for a new Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Yakima.

One proposed site for the leased office building -- which would have included controversial temporary detention cells -- had been criticized by some nearby residents and business owners for traffic and safety concerns.

Neil Hauff, owner of HF Hauff Co., called the decision by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to withdraw plans to lease a building "a prudent thing to do."

Hauff, whose company makes wind machines and orchard sprayers and has been on Presson Place since 1996, repeated that his opposition to the planned ICE center was because of traffic issues in the industrial area on a dead-end street.

"It's the wrong place for that facility," he said.

Select proposals to combine the ICE units responsible for investigation and detention of illegal immigrants are being withdrawn across the country due to budget problems, according to federal officials.

"This is not unique to Yakima," said ICE spokeswoman Lorie Dankers in Seattle.

The General Services Administration, which handles property management for federal agencies, learned late last week that ICE's Office of Detention and Removal was withdrawing some of its lease request, said Ross Buffington, a GSA spokesman.

The Yakima office was to hold both that unit and ICE's Office of Investigation as part of a continuing national effort to bring the two units together.

Both offices already have separate leased space in Yakima, including temporary detention cells. Those cells are not intended for overnight stays. Detainees are either transferred to the Yakima County jail under a federal contract or taken to the federal detention center in Tacoma.

Dankers and Buffington have both stressed that the office building would not serve as a jail, though the concept of living next to detainees has alarmed some residents of a nearby mobile home park for senior citizens.

The Presson Place project was proposed by the Jundt-Eglin LLC and was one of several bid responses that GSA said it had been considering.

Buffington said GSA still expects to issue a scaled-back request for new Yakima space for the Office of Investigations. The detention cells were part of the requirements for the Office of Detention and Removal, he said.

Dankers and Buffington said they did not have details about how many lease requests would be proceeding.

The Office of Detention and Removal has a budget of $2.55 billion for fiscal year 2010.

"They have a variety of priorities, and this was not a priority for this year," Dankers said, noting that the request for combined space may be reconsidered in the future.

* Mark Morey can be reached at 509-577-7671 or mmorey@yakimaherald.com.