ICE Detention Center Surprise
An ICE detention center in Surprise remains paused as an environmental review makes slow progress. It is reported; the record holds no sourced date for when it reached that stage.
How much power it needs, how much water it would use and who would use it have not been disclosed.
How to read this page. Every fact links to the source it rests on; a number in brackets is its place in the source list. A figure no source gives reads Not disclosed, and nothing is estimated. Where sources give different figures, each is shown with who gave it, and another source's figure never stands in for the record's own. Entries are added and never overwritten; corrections are listed under What happened.
What is known
Each figure as its source gave it. The number in brackets is its place in the source list.
- Land
- Not disclosed
- Power it would draw
- Not disclosed
- Water
- Not disclosed
- Who leads it
- Not disclosed
- Who would use it
- Not disclosed
- Jobs once it runs
- Not disclosed
- Tax each year
- Not disclosed
Every field, with who said it and when (Researcher view)
Impact figures
| Field | Value | Who says so | Source | Last verified |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| How much power it needs | Not disclosed | |||
| How much water it would use | Not disclosed | |||
| How loud it would be | Not disclosed | |||
| Jobs once it runs | Not disclosed | |||
| Tax it would pay each year | Not disclosed |
The record's fields
| Field | Value | Who says so | Source | Last verified |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Who is building it | Not disclosed | |||
| Who is constructing it | Not disclosed | |||
| How much land | Not disclosed | |||
| Where its power comes from | Not disclosed | |||
| Grid connection | Not disclosed | |||
| How it is cooled | Not disclosed |
The developer's figure is what the company said; what a permit allows is the ceiling a permit sets; measured means observed. Water is in gallons a day or a year, whichever the source stated; a tax claim given as a range shows both ends, each linked to the source that gave it.
Still not public, and where it would show up
The record adds each the day a source gives it. Why these documents.
- Water useA state water right filing or a water supply agreement.
- Who would use itA lease announcement or a tenant named in a filing.
- Power the campus would drawA utility or public service commission docket, an interconnection filing, or an air permit for an on site plant.
- Who is behind itA land record, a zoning application or a company's own announcement.
- Jobs and taxAn incentive agreement, a county's economic development filing or a fiscal note.
What was decided
Acts of Maricopa County and Surprise about data centers, on the record with their source. A rule about the area is not a decision about this record.
| Date | Who | Decision | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gilbert | Gilbert leaders want strict rules on data centers to make it hard for server farms to set up shop; new rules expected in September but delayed to October or November. | watereducation.org | |
| Chandler | Chandler capped data center water use | youtube.com | |
| Maricopa County | Maricopa County adopted a new ordinance clarifying guidelines for data center development | bizjournals.com | |
| Maricopa County | It is the first time data centers have been defined in county zoning rules | kjzz.org | |
| Maricopa County | The modernized ordinance updated how the county defines a data center and restricts them to industrial areas | kjzz.org | |
| Maricopa County | Maricopa County Board of Supervisors overhauled its zoning ordinance at a meeting Wednesday in December 2025 | kjzz.org |
7 earlier decisions on the county's rows
| Date | Who | Decision | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mesa | Mesa data centers will need City Council approval to build under new regulations | kjzz.org | |
| Mesa | New Mesa zoning amendments direct data centers to heavy industrial zones and general industrial zones | kjzz.org | |
| Mesa | Mesa data center ordinance restricts future projects to land zoned for industrial use | themesatribune.com | |
| Mesa | Mesa City Council adopted new zoning rules for data centers and their operations in a City Council vote in July 2025 | kjzz.org | |
| Mesa | Mesa City Council unanimously approved data center amendments on July 8, 2025, with two members absent | themesatribune.com | |
| Mesa | Proposed 60 foot height limit for data centers | themesatribune.com | |
| Mesa | Proposed 400 foot setback from residential areas for data centers | themesatribune.com |
What happened
No dated entry is on the record yet.
The site
Where in Maricopa County is not in the public record. The pin marks the county seat, not a building, and the outline is the county.
Tap a pin for the data center, the parcel for its record
- This record: Proposed, ringed
- data center
- Dashed edge: the exact site is not in the public record
- Smaller pins: 27 other published records in Arizona
Details
- this record's location, ringed
- parcel outline, from the county parcel record
- city limits, U.S. Census Bureau, on a town level record
- county boundary
The other pins are the published projects in the same state, each in its stage color. The imagery beneath is the USGS national orthoimagery, public domain, shown so the land around the site can be read.
- Where
- Surprise, Maricopa County, Arizona
- How exactly it is located
- County level, the county seat
- The parcel
- No parcel outline in the public record
- Nearest homes
- Not computed for a record placed at a place center
- Nearest records
- Nearest records are not computed for a record placed at a county seat.
Questions about this project
4 questions answered from the record
Who is building ICE Detention Center Surprise?
-
Not disclosed. No source on file names the developer. The sources read for this record are listed under Sources.
How much power and water does ICE Detention Center Surprise say it needs?
-
Power: not disclosed by any source on file. Water: not disclosed by any source on file.
Where does ICE Detention Center Surprise stand today?
-
It is reported; the date it reached that stage is not sourced, only the day a page was read. No dated entry is on the record yet.
What has Surprise or Maricopa County decided about it?
-
Gilbert: Gilbert leaders want strict rules on data centers to make it hard for server farms to set up shop; new rules expected in September but delayed to October or November. (reported September 23, 2026, source); and Chandler: Chandler capped data center water use (reported June 22, 2026, source). 13 events are on the county's rows; a rule about the area is not a decision about this record.
Sources
Reporting
- ICE detention center in Surprise still paused as environmental review makes slow progress, KJZZ, September 4, 2026, local outlet
1 source on file.
Cite this record
Data Center Record, "ICE Detention Center Surprise", https://datacenterrecord.org/projects/ice-detention-center-surprise-az, last verified September 17, 2026.
Cite this page
Data Center Record, "ICE Detention Center Surprise", https://datacenterrecord.org/projects/ice-detention-center-surprise-az. Data: Data Center Record, datacenterrecord.org, CC BY 4.0.
The structured rows are CC BY 4.0. Link to this page; that is what turns a reuse into a citation. Prose stays under copyright.
For researchers
- Slug
- ice-detention-center-surprise-az
- Status value
- rumored
- Stage
- Proposed
- Tier
- skeleton
- Tags
- skeleton
- Place id
- us/az/maricopa-county/surprise
- Coordinates
- 33.44833, -112.07389
- Location precision
- county
- Location source
- County seat (Phoenix), Wikidata, placed at county level
- Coordinate source
- wikidata county seat
- Location source number
- Not disclosed
- Location last verified
- September 16, 2026
- EPA registry id
- Not disclosed
- Use type values
- not_disclosed
- Tenancy value
- not_disclosed
- Cooling type value
- not_disclosed
- Capacity basis
- not_disclosed
- Water basis
- not_disclosed, gallons_per_day
- Acreage basis
- Not disclosed
- Interconnection value
- not_disclosed
- Capacity, if disclosed
- Not disclosed
- Rating of the county's rows
- Restrictive
- Published
- 2026-09-04
- Last verified
- 2026-09-17