Protesters confronted county leaders over a paused plan to use an ICE warehouse in Maryland
HAGERSTOWN, Md., on April 9—Horns blared and protesters screamed “Stop ICE!” outside a meeting on the western edge of Maryland where Washington County officials were discussing routine business, including the solid waste budget. The protest reflected rising local anger over a federal plan to convert warehouses across the United States into immigration detention facilities, including a Washington County warehouse that the Department of Homeland Security purchased as part of that effort.
The plan for the western Maryland building—an 825,000-square-foot structure purchased in Washington County—has now been paused, and the pause has deepened local uncertainty about whether federal officials will proceed or change course. The pause is entangled in a court fight, with questions also centered on whether Secretary Markwayne Mullin will continue the approach taken by his predecessor, Kristi Noem, as he reviews the contracts.
Outside the meeting, Patrick Dattilio, founder of an anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement group called Hagerstown Rapid Response, said the facility was “built for packages, not people,” as county commissioners held their session. People who live near the proposed site said they oppose the detention concept on moral grounds and also said they learned about the warehouse purchase only after federal ownership had been established.
County commissioners have said their hands were tied because the federal government had already bought the building, but residents point to what they viewed as contradictory messaging during earlier public action. During a Feb. 10 meeting, the commissioners approved a proclamation declaring their “unwavering support” for DHS and ICE. The proclamation, which did not specifically mention the warehouse purchase, drew booing and yelling; the meeting president cleared the room as the reaction escalated.
County officials also pursued related local infrastructure requests shortly after. The county forwarded the proclamation to Noem the next day in an email identifying hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of sewer, airport and highway upgrades that it said were needed, according to a public records request received by Ethan Wechtaluk, a local resident running for Congress in the district that includes the warehouse. County commissioners did not respond to email or telephone requests for comment, and county administrator Michelle Gordon said in a statement that the commissioners were declining all interview requests.
In addition to the protest outside the county meeting, the federal warehouse-to-detention idea has triggered pushback across the country. The cluster described lawsuits in New Jersey alleging an “utter lack of communication” and in Michigan that challenged why DHS did not consider using empty state prisons, along with local actions in Salt Lake City and Pennsylvania where officials threatened to withhold or limit water. In Georgia, the town of Social Circle placed a lock on the water meter at a warehouse DHS purchased.
Questions also have arisen about the prices the federal government paid for some properties. The report said DHS paid double what a New Jersey warehouse was valued at in tax records and nearly five times more than the assessed value of the Social Circle warehouse. Mullin was also pressed during his confirmation hearing about whether he would continue Noem’s policy of turning warehouses into detention facilities, and he said he wanted the department to “be good partners” with communities without committing to a specific course.
In Washington County, the dispute has moved into the courts. The report said ICE signed a contract worth $113 million to renovate the building for 500 to 1,500 detainees, but a judge temporarily halted work after Maryland’s attorney general sued. A hearing is scheduled for April 15, and the federal government has said in a court filing in the Maryland case that “ICE is reconsidering the plans and scope of the warehouse,” while DHS, when asked about whether changes were underway for the Maryland facility, said “As with any transition, we are reviewing agency policies and proposals.”
Residents near the property said they are waiting to see what happens next as activists continue to watch the federal review process. The report said the plan was to use the warehouse as an ICE processing facility to hold recently arrested immigrants before they go to other facilities for long-term detention, and it noted that state lawmakers have expressed concerns about the George H. Fallon Federal Building in downtown Baltimore, where ICE detainees are held, in part because a bacteria that causes Legionnaires’ disease was found in the water.
For nearly three decades, Nica Sutch has had a home in the rolling hills of western Maryland, raising children and later entertaining grandchildren in the area. When the warehouse was built a few years ago to meet distribution-center demand tied to online shopping growth, she said it seemed like it could be an economic boon; now that ICE has purchased the building, she is weighing the possibility of moving. “I love the area,” Sutch said in an interview in her backyard. “I love everything. This has been my home for 28 years.”