Hagerstown, Maryland – Horns blared and protesters shouted “Stop the ice!” Outside a meeting on the western edge of Maryland where county officials were discussing mundane issues like the solid waste budget.
It’s been like this since Department of Homeland Security It purchased an 825,000-square-foot (76,645 m2) building in Washington County as part of Warehouse conversion plan Across the United States to detention facilities For tens of thousands of immigrants.
“This facility is designed for evictions, not people,” said Patrick Dattilio, founder of an anti-eviction organization. Immigration and customs He said to a group called Hagerstown Rapid Response while standing outside a County Commission meeting.
The federal government faced fierce opposition in communities as it spent a total of $1.074 billion to build 11 warehouses under a plan aimed at Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullen Reviews. Washington County is the most welcoming community — and one where officials have said they support ICE, albeit to whistles and jeers. The processing center there was supposed to be the first of its kind to be opened in the facilities project built under it Mullen’s predecessor, Kristi Noem.
But now the Department of Homeland Security’s plan for a Washington County building has been paused — and is mired in a court battle like few other projects from warehouses to detention across the United States. Questions swirl around whether Mullen will move forward with the facilities project or chart another course as he pursues President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda.
The sprawling blue-and-white depot in Washington County has been the subject of intense debate in part because of the way commissioners have expressed their support for ICE.
While they have repeatedly insisted that their hands are tied because the federal government has already purchased the building, so are the commissioners I agreed to advertise During their meeting on February 10, they declared their “steadfast support” for DHS and ICE.
The announcement, which did not specifically mention the purchase of the warehouse, was met with so much booing and shouting that the committee chairman cleared the room.
The county wanted something, too. She sent the announcement to Noem the next day in an email outlining hundreds of millions of dollars worth of sewer, airport and highway improvements she said were needed, according to a public records request received by local resident Ethan Wichtaluk, who is running for Congress in the district that includes the warehouse.
ICE, cash flow from A Huge appropriations to CongressShe has since signed a contract worth $113 million to renovate the building to hold 500 to 1,500 detainees, but a judge temporarily halted the work after the Maryland attorney general sued. The hearing is scheduled for April 15.
County commissioners did not respond to email or phone requests for comment. Commissioners declined all interview requests, County Manager Michelle Gordon said in a statement.
Many residents of the district — a place where Civil War buffs come to visit the Antietam battlefield before making their way to nearby Gettysburg — are angry because they have moral objections to the facility and Because they didn’t find out About advance purchase.
“We had no voice in this matter,” Carol Sakr said amid the noise of protesters and car horns. Behind her, the Sheriff’s Department cordoned off part of the county building with crime scene tape to deter protesters. Two deputies monitored the demonstrators.
During the meeting, Sakr sat quietly, holding a sign that read: “Disenfranchised in Washington County.”
the decline in other societies They included a lawsuit in New Jersey alleging a “complete lack of communication” and a lawsuit in Michigan questioning why DHS did not consider using empty state prisons. Officials in Salt Lake City and Pennsylvania have threatened to withhold or limit water. In Georgia, the town of Social Circle put a lock on the water meter at a warehouse purchased by the Department of Homeland Security.
At the same time, questions also emerged about how much DHS paid for some of the warehouses. I paid twice what the New Jersey warehouse was assessed for in tax records and nearly five times the assessed value for the Social Circle warehouse.
Mullen was pressed during his confirmation hearing on whether he would continue Noem’s policy of converting these warehouses into detention facilities. Without committing to anything, Mullen said the department wants to be “good partners” with communities.
Days after he was sworn in, the Department of Homeland Security temporarily suspended him Purchase new warehouses Aimed at sheltering migrants. She’s checking all the contracts signed under Noem.
“ICE is reconsidering the plans and scope of the depot,” the federal government also said in a recent lawsuit in the Maryland lawsuit.
Asked if Any changes They were well underway at the Maryland facility: “As with any transition, we are reviewing the agency’s policies and proposals,” DHS said in a statement.
The plan was to convert the Maryland warehouse into an ICE processing facility that would hold recently arrested immigrants before they went to other facilities for long-term detention.
The Washington County warehouse will serve ICE’s Baltimore office’s detention space needs, ICE officials said. State legislators They expressed their concerns About the George H. Fallon Federal Building that houses ICE detainees in downtown Baltimore, in part because bacteria that cause Legionnaires’ disease were found in the water.
Activists and people who live near the Washington County warehouse are watching.
For nearly three decades, Nika Such had a home in the rolling hills of western Maryland, where she raised children and entertained grandchildren.
When the warehouse was built a few years ago to meet the demand for distribution centers, driven by the growth of online shopping, it justified it as it could be an economic boon for the region.
Now that ICE has purchased the building, they are looking to move in.
“I love the area,” she said during an interview in her backyard. “I love everything. This has been my home for 28 years.”
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Hollingsworth reported from Kansas City, Missouri.