The agreement between the state, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement pauses conversion work at the warehouse near Sweetwater Avenue and Dysart Road. The Arizona Attorney General’s Office said the review is expected to create a minimum delay of nine months.

The pause does not cancel the proposed facility. It delays the project while environmental issues are evaluated, and the available reporting does not establish whether the detention center will ultimately proceed.

What is planned for the warehouse

DHS purchased the Surprise warehouse in January 2026 with plans to convert it into an immigration detention facility. The proposed center was described as having approximately 1,500 beds, which would make the planned conversion a major new federal detention operation in the city.

The warehouse’s location gives the proposal a direct Surprise connection: the property is at Sweetwater Avenue and Dysart Road. The sources identify the site as being in Surprise, but they do not establish that the city approved or controls the federal project.

For residents, the immediate practical change is that conversion work cannot move ahead while the environmental review requirement is pending. The agreement sets a delay rather than a final decision about the warehouse’s future use.

Agreement follows litigation and negotiations

The pause followed litigation and negotiations involving the state and federal agencies. Mayes announced that DHS and ICE had agreed to stop conversion efforts for the time being, with the environmental review to be completed before the project can move forward.

The nine-month figure is a minimum projected delay from the Arizona Attorney General’s Office, not a confirmed completion date for the review. The sources do not specify the review’s final scope, and they do not provide a firm date for a later decision on the detention proposal.

That distinction matters because the project remains active in a limited sense. The agreement prevents the planned conversion from proceeding during the review period, but it does not permanently prevent the property from being used for detention.

What happens next

The next known step is the environmental review. Its completion is the condition tied to ending the current pause, but the approved reporting does not say when the review will be finished beyond the Attorney General’s Office estimate of at least nine months.

After the review, the project’s status will still need to be determined. The available sources do not establish whether DHS and ICE will continue with the proposed approximately 1,500-bed facility, change the plan or abandon it.

For now, the Surprise warehouse remains the site of a delayed proposal rather than an operating detention center or a permanently canceled project. The July 1 agreement gives environmental review priority before federal conversion efforts can resume.