We Were Called Alarmists Over the ICE Warehouse Plan. Now There’s a Federal Investigation.
After months of warnings from residents, lawsuits from the Maryland Attorney General, and growing environmental concerns, the federal government’s own watchdog is now reportedly scrutinizing DHS’s con
For months, residents in Washington County have been warning that DHS’s plan to convert a massive industrial warehouse near Hagerstown into an ICE detention center was reckless, rushed, and lacking transparency.
Now the federal government’s own watchdog is reportedly investigating the broader warehouse detention program itself.
According to new reporting from The Wall Street Journal, the Department of Homeland Security’s Inspector General has launched an audit into ICE’s acquisition of detention space, including the controversial warehouse-to-detention initiative championed by former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and adviser Corey Lewandowski. The report states that DHS rapidly purchased vacant industrial warehouses across the country, often paying above market rates while pushing to open facilities that reportedly lacked proper zoning and plumbing infrastructure.
That mirrors exactly what residents and community groups such as Hagerstown Rapid Response and Washington County Indivisible have been warning about for months in Washington County.
The proposed ICE facility in Williamsport is an 825,000 square foot industrial warehouse purchased by DHS for $102.4 million. Despite reportedly having only an 800 gallon-per-day water allotment, DHS pursued plans to house up to 1,500 detainees there, something that would require more than 150 times more water for drinking, toilets, showers, laundry, cooking, and sewage operations.
Meanwhile, the county sewage system is already at capacity, local infrastructure cannot support a project of this scale without major upgrades, and taxpayers could ultimately be left paying for the consequences.
Residents repeatedly raised concerns about environmental impacts, floodplain issues, infrastructure strain, and the rushed, secretive nature of the project. Instead of listening, local officials and DHS treated concerned residents like alarmists while moving the project forward behind closed doors. The Washington County Commissioners unanimously endorsed the facility earlier this year despite these unresolved concerns.
Last month, a federal judge extended a preliminary injunction blocking the conversion and operation of the detention center while litigation brought by Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown moves forward. More recently, we at Hagerstown Rapid Response and Washington County Indivisible reported that DHS emails discovered in from an MPIA request showed the agency had determined the project now requires a formal Environmental Assessment under the National Environmental Policy Act because it could result in significant environmental and community impacts requiring deeper federal review and future public engagement.
For months, we have protested every single week outside County Commissioners meetings, filed public records requests, coordinated with journalists and environmental advocates, and organized across the region to stop the project.
We intend to continue throwing sand in the gears at every opportunity until plans for this ICE detention facility are permanently canceled.