Cary Residents Rally Against ICE Facility Expansion Near Koka Booth Amphitheatre

Kathy Martin was near tears when she stood before the Wake County Board of Commissioners on March 2, carrying a petition bearing roughly 1,300 signatures. The target of her appeal: a reported federal lease of office space at 11000 Regency Parkway, a Class A office park adjacent to Koka Booth Amphitheatre, that community members fear is destined to become a second ICE facility in Cary.

The 25,000-square-foot suite at 11000 Regency Parkway appeared in a database of more than 150 leases and expansions compiled by Wired magazine. According to government records, the space was leased by the U.S. General Services Administration in October for a minimum of five years at around $3.5 million, with an opportunity to extend to 10 years. The GSA's own inventory lists the lease as taking effect in October 2025 and expiring in October 2030, but does not identify which federal agency is using the space. ICE already has a field office in Cary at 140 Centrewest Court; the Regency Parkway location would be its second in town.

Martin presented the roughly 1,300-signature petition to the Wake County Board, telling commissioners, near tears, that the ICE facility is a "terrible idea … and I'm not the only one who thinks so." At that same meeting, she implored the board to act: while acknowledging that Cary and Wake County "may not have a lot of legal authority to intervene," she said officials "can absolutely put political pressure on these people," and urged the board to pass a resolution or speak informally to the leasing office.

The petition represented the largest organized expression of dissent, but it was far from the only one. Dozens of protesters gathered outside Cary Town Hall on March 5 before Mayor Harold Weinbrecht's State of Cary address to demand that the town council take a stand against ICE. Activists including members of Cary Indivisible projected messages and images onto the town hall building, including "STOP ICE TERROR." Some protesters entered the building to confront the mayor directly during the public Q&A, where community member Jason Williams told Weinbrecht: "It can be done, but is there the political will to do so? It sounds like from your end, there's not."

Weinbrecht's response was cautious. He told residents he had not heard anything about a detention facility coming to town and said he would likely have very little power to stop one if it did: "We have no idea what's going on here. We don't know anything about ICE going on in there. If we did, we'd have absolutely no authority to stop them." He also warned that organized public statements could backfire. "According to Weinbrecht, some in Cary's immigrant community told him not to draw attention to ICE out of fear for their safety. "If you have a public statement, you're asking for an invitation." Weinbrecht wrote on his blog in February that the town had received "dozens of emails" about the Regency Parkway lease, but did not confirm ICE's presence there. Town spokesperson Carolyn Roman told INDY in February that 45 residents had contacted the town to express opposition to the reported lease.

The protests in Cary did not start with the Regency Parkway news. Cary has emerged as a focal point in tensions with ICE and Border Patrol, with protesters repeatedly demonstrating outside the existing ICE office in the city; it was also an enforcement hotspot in November, when a U.S. citizen was among those detained by Border Patrol agents. Those November operations triggered a sustained response: community members began holding recurring Friday-morning protests outside the field office at 140 Centrewest Court.

Congresswoman Valerie Foushee has been direct in her opposition. "Congress and the public have been kept in the dark about ICE's secretive expansion plans, and the lack of transparency is unacceptable," Foushee said. "As a cosponsor of the Respect for Local Communities Act, I am working to require full public reporting and oversight of ICE's lease and enforcement activities. I firmly oppose this possible expansion." The Respect for Local Communities Act, introduced February 23, 2026, was referred to the House Judiciary Committee.

Immigrant advocacy group Siembra has been trying to get answers directly from the building's management. Emanuel Gomez Gonzalez, a communications strategist for Siembra, wrote in a statement: "We have heard the troubling news that ICE may be expanding their presence in Cary, and we have reached out to the property manager ourselves — and still are waiting for answers. We encourage local elected officials to inquire into the issue and use their role as the people's representative to get to the bottom of these plans."

Bridge Commercial Real Estate manages the Regency Parkway building; a company representative could not identify the government agency using the space, but said the lease was for office use and was not anything beyond "attorneys in suits." ICE did not respond to a request for comment on the lease, and a GSA spokesperson did not indicate what the office space would be used for, but said the agency is following all lease procurement procedures and applicable laws.

The Department of Homeland Security asked GSA to hide some lease listings due to "national security concerns," according to Wired's reporting. That opacity has only deepened community frustration. Laura Paye, creator of the Durham Resistance website and organizer of the petition, said the expansion of ICE in Cary is "upsetting and frustrating," especially because details are being obscured — and she argued the question of whether the site becomes a detention center is almost beside the point: "This is not, most likely, going to be a detention center. But I don't think that should diminish our alarm or opposition to it.