Pflugerville Neighbors, Officials Concerned About Mysterious Homeland Security Facility

By Alex Lamb

Reporting Texas

Behind a gas station and row of small businesses near a Pflugerville neighborhood sits a freshly renovated warehouse boxed on three sides by tall blue fencing and shiny new razor wire. 

“It is a frightening-looking place,” said a bartender at Pflutto’s Tavern just a few yards away. “I’ve definitely been wondering what the hell they’ve been keeping back there.”

Leaders of the Austin chapter of the Party for Socialism and Liberation recently protested to draw attention to the facility at 20200 Algreg St. and to demand official information about its purpose. 

The protest organizers said they have information the facility will be used as an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center as the new Trump administration ramps up deportations. They received photos of the interior of the building showing holding cells and what appears to be an interrogation room. 

“We want answers from the local leaders who are supposed to know about this,” said Peishi Cheng, a PSL representative who spoke during the Feb. 1 protest. “We haven’t seen any communication from our local leaders about this facility. How is it that the community members are the ones who have to find out about it to get answers?”

Pflugerville officials said they have had only scant communications with the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE. They said they were told the building is not a jail but rather an office building. Reporting Texas’ attempts to contact ICE’s regional and national offices went unanswered.

“We haven’t really been told anything. All we know is that the Department of Homeland Security is refurbishing this big metal building,” said Pflugerville Mayor Victor Gonzales. “The initial communications, which were very, very skinny, were that they were building offices there.”

 Neighbors and workers in nearby businesses said no one has told them about the nature of the facility. Most interviewed said they didn’t hear any news about it until the day of the rally. 

“The secrecy is astounding,” said resident Frank Mancini. “This used to be a distillery. And then I watched as they were renovating for over a year, and I wondered what it was. Then all the sudden we’ve got these tall fences with concertina wire and all these high-powered lights outside. It looks like a prison now. But they did it so covertly.”

 

Amory Woodard, a barber working at AB Fadez on the other side of the fence from the DHS facility, expressed concern about his new neighbor. “The potential situations that can come from that, you know,” Woodard said, “and it’s just right behind me and my place of business. That does worry me a little bit.” 

The building sits on a lot owned by California-based Elmwood Capital Group, identified as “ECG GSA 1 LLC,” according to Travis Central Appraisal District records.  

Gonzales said he learned that DHS had leased the facility only a few days before the protest. Pflugerville City Councilmember Rudy Metayer said his office was informed on Jan. 28 that DHS had leased the land and was building an ICE facility.

“We weren’t aware of anything,” Metayer said. “Unfortunately, the federal government doesn’t have to go by any of our rules.” 

Gonzales said DHS is not required to notify the city, to secure city permits or abide by city code enforcement.

“We were completely blindsided,” said Jenn Ayers, who leases a photography studio near the DHS facility. “The fact that it is now across the street from us is a little reprehensible.”

Metayer, the son of two Haitian immigrants, said of the possibility of the site being used for immigrant detention, ”It hits home a little different for me. It cuts a little more deeply.”

“The fear caused by this facility being in Pflugerville is in direct contradiction to the welcoming, diverse, and inclusive community Pflugerville has grown to become,” he said.