Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich says President Joe Biden’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is planning to open a hotel to house border crossers that is nearby a school and neighborhood.

In a letter to Biden’s top DHS officials, including Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Brnovich warned the administration against opening the migrant hotel, which would house about 1,200 border crossers who would be set for release into the United States interior.

“I am writing to express grave concerns that an [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] contractor has apparently subcontracted with the current owners of a hotel at North Scottsdale Road and East Mountain View Road in Scottsdale, Arizona (the “Hotel Property”) to operate a 1,200 person ICE detention facility,” Brnovich wrote:

This location is next to a residential neighborhood and school. I was extremely disappointed to learn about this through a newspaper report rather than any prior contact from DHS or ICE, even though there are important public safety issues involved in locating any detention center in a community setting. [Emphasis added]

The root causes of the current crisis are problems of the Biden administration’s own making, including policies that have administratively and intentionally crippled ICE’s important law enforcement mission and incentivized illegal immigration. While everyone rightly expects that migrants should be treated humanely, a new detention facility at the Hotel Property should not be established. [Emphasis added]

Brnovich wrote that “there is no guarantee that housing 1,200 detainees in this area would not result in some of them being released into the community” and demanded answers as to how DHS was ensuring that the border crossers do not have criminal records and are not carrying the Chinese coronavirus.

“The Hotel Property is literally adjacent to an apartment complex and near a senior living facility,” Brnovich wrote. “It is also across the street from a residential neighborhood and another apartment complex. It is less than a block from a high school, less than one mile from a preschool, and less than two miles from a middle school.”

Biden’s plan for the migrant hotel in the residential Arizona community has sparked outrage from locals, hundreds of whom protested the plans last week:

Millie MacMillan, a 24-year-old local, told AZ Central that she organized the grassroots protest against the migrant hotel, saying that she is concerned the border crossers are being used for votes.

“I’m worried that Biden’s agenda of inviting illegals in order to have them vote Democrat later when they become citizens,” MacMillan said:

I think in taxpayers’ minds, they are illegal immigrants. Biden and Harris may be trying to change the definition of what that means (seeking asylum) in order to gain Democrat votes. [Emphasis added]

Brnovich wrote that “it is foreseeable” that Biden’s DHS would “simply release” the border crossers from the migrant hotels with no intention to arrest and deport them later due to the administration’s “sanctuary country” orders that prevent most border crossers and illegal aliens from being deported from the U.S.

“There are many serious questions about DHS and ICE’s actions in the current border crisis,” Brnovich wrote. “And it appears that DHS and ICE are attempting to circumvent any state or local involvement in the decision to establish this detention facility … I urge you to reverse your decision and not use the Hotel Property as an ICE Detention Center.”

Putting border crossers in migrant hotels is the first step in the Biden administration’s expansive Catch and Release operation. After staying in the taxpayer-funded hotels for a few days, the border crossers are then bused or flown on domestic commercial flights into the U.S. interior.

American taxpayers, meanwhile, are footing the bill.

Migrant hotels set up in Texas by the Biden administration are costing taxpayers about $72,000 per border crosser awarded a room, according to Center for Immigration Studies analysis.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.