CoreCivic is no longer seeking to build an immigration detention facility in Elkhart County, according to Commissioner Mike Yoder.

The company informed county commissioners that they are pulling their zoning request.

Yoder announced the news late Monday morning.

“There was a perception that if we added a 1,000-bed detention facility, that this would be detrimental to our efforts to improve our quality of place and we would be perceived as an unwelcoming community," Yoder told NewsCenter 16's Karina Flores. "It’s a valid concern, obviously, and it actually came up in the commissioners’ minds early on is that that would be one factor we’d have to consider.”

CoreCivic was interested in building the facility along County Road 7 across from the county landfill.

Commissioners had been preparing for the first public hearing on February 8, but no decision will have to be made now.

The opposition to the facility

"People are appreciating that Goshen and Elkhart County have become more diverse, more accepting of diversity," Richard Aguirre, the coordinator of the Coalition against Elkhart County Detention Center, said. "We haven't been a community where there's been hate crime, where there's been a lot of animus like you see in other communities, we haven't had some of those issues, and that's because we have an appreciation for diversity, and I think there's an understanding for the need for greater inclusion and equity."

"It doesn't add to our area," Goshen mayor Jeremy Stutsman said. "It doesn't add anything of value to Elkhart County. We need to be focusing and encouraging on projects that bring jobs to this area, jobs that we want, higher paying jobs, and then also focus on things that are going to build our community and our neighborhoods."

Stay with NewsCenter 16 for the latest updates on this story.