Tuesday, June 9, 2026
This photo was taken this morning outside the proposed ICE detention facility in Surprise, Arizona.
The tanker on the left is labeled for corrosive Sulfuric Acid. It is parked illegally in a posted “No Parking Any Time” zone. And it is blocking a fire hydrant — visible in the background, painted yellow, completely inaccessible.
This isn’t a fluke. These trucks are out here every day. We have the photos to prove it.
Now imagine it’s six months from now:
The ICE facility is operational. According to federal contracts, it will hold 542 detainees. The truck outside isn’t carrying sulfuric acid this time — it’s carrying anhydrous hydrogen chloride. That compound is stored at the adjacent Rinchem chemical facility, documented in their official EPA Risk Management Plan filed with the federal government.
A gasket fails. It doesn’t take much — the RMP’s own “Alternative Release Scenario” describes exactly this kind of routine mechanical failure, the same one that happened in Oklahoma last year. The pressurized liquid escapes and instantly vaporizes. Anhydrous HCl tears moisture from the desert air and transforms into a dense, blinding white plume of aerosolized hydrochloric acid. Cold and heavy, the cloud doesn’t rise. It rolls.
The Surprise Fire Department responds. But the hydrant is blocked — just like the one in this photo, just like they are every single day. Firefighters can’t deploy water lines to knock down the plume. They’re hunting for a secondary source down the block while the cloud keeps expanding.
It hits the detention facility first. For 542 people locked inside under armed guard, evacuation is not a quick option. Commercial HVAC units pull the ground-hugging mist directly into the interior, creating an instant gas chamber. Corrosive aerosol spreads through the holding areas. Staff and detainees alike suffer rapid-onset respiratory burns.
The wind does the rest. The RMP’s Alternative Release Scenario — the realistic one, not the worst case — maps a 2.7-mile toxic footprint from this site. Depending on wind direction, that corridor passes through residential neighborhoods in El Mirage and Surprise. It reaches Dysart High School. It reaches more than a dozen K-8 campuses in the surrounding area. Thousands of residents inhale aerosolized hydrochloric acid before anyone has time to evacuate.
All of that is drawn from federal documents and photos taken outside this facility on an ordinary morning.
The RMP’s actual worst-case scenario — a total tank failure under out of the ordinay weather conditions — extends over 6 miles, placing more than 250,000 northwest valley residents inside the exposure zone.
And here’s what makes it all so much worse: last week, the Surprise Fire Marshal confirmed that neither DHS, GardaWorld, nor Rinchem has made a single contact with their office to coordinate emergency response planning for this site. The agency that would have to respond to this scenario hasn’t been briefed, consulted, or even notified. We don’t know whether DHS is designing an adequate shelter-in-place protocol inside the facility. We’re not sure one would even be sufficient. What we know is that no one in the federal government has thought it necessary to ask.
Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes said it plainly when she filed suit to stop this facility: it will never be appropriate for mass detention. The chemical hazard environment surrounding this site — and the complete absence of coordinated emergency planning — is exactly why she was right.
Show up and make them answer.
The Surprise City Council meets Tuesday, June 16th at 6:00 PM. We will be there. Come stand with us. Call your council member today and demand that these concerns be placed on the meeting agenda:
- Mayor Sartor: 623-222-1313
- D1 Haney: 623-222-1321
- D2 Greenberg: 623-222-1322
- D3 Duffy: 623-222-1323
- D4 Melton: 623-222-1324
- D5 Hastings: 623-222-1325
- D6 Judd: 623-222-1326