McClain Delaney, Van Hollen, Alsobrooks Press Washington County Commissioners for Transparency on ICE Warehouse Purchase

Lawmakers wrote to Commission ahead of its vote on a resolution expressing “its full support for DHS and ICE” amid local outcry against ICE warehouse purchase, agency’s repeated string of lawless abuses in Maryland and across U.S.
WASHINGTON – Today,  U.S. Representative April McClain Delaney and U.S. Senators Chris Van Hollen and Angela Alsobrooks (all D-Md.) wrote to the members of the Washington County Board of County Commissioners to express their concerns over the Trump Administration’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) reported plans to convert a warehouse located in the County into a 1,500-person immigration detention facility.
In their letter, they stressed that this warehouse will further fuel the Trump Administration’s cruel and inhumane immigration agenda – which has been marked by arrests of scores of people who pose no threat to public safety, violations of individuals’ due process rights, and reports of unsafe conditions in detention facilities, among other harms. Regarding the local impact, the lawmakers added that using a building not designed or zoned for residential confinement risks overburdening County infrastructure, public health systems, and first response capabilities. Given that the Commissioners have not provided answers to County residents on these matters, the lawmakers pressed them to provide what measures, if any, that they have taken to prevent abuses from taking place in the facility as have occurred elsewhere, to study or prepare for the impact of this facility on County resources, and to ensure compliance with laws and regulations requiring community input and transparency around development decisions.
“We write to express our serious concern regarding today’s vote to declare unwavering support for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Further, we want to voice our strong opposition to ICE’s plans to convert a large warehouse near Hagerstown into an immigration detention facility. We recognize that immigration enforcement is a federal responsibility. However, land use, zoning, and the protection of public health, safety, and general welfare are squarely within the authority and responsibility of Washington County.” the lawmakers began. “Those responsibilities are not preempted by the Supremacy Clause, nor waived by federal interest in a particular site, particularly when the proposed use represents a dramatic departure from the facility’s original design and intended purpose.”
“The proposed conversion of a warehouse into a detention facility capable of holding up to 1,500 people raises serious risks to public health and order. Immigration detention is a civil system, yet it has been increasingly used to detain individuals indiscriminately. ICE’s own data shows that nearly three-quarters of detainees pose no risk to public safety,” they added. “In addition to these humanitarian concerns, establishing such a facility in a warehouse not designed for residential confinement would pose substantial public health and safety risks and place added strain on local hospitals, emergency responders, and already stressed infrastructure, including roads, utilities, and water systems. Expanding detention capacity risks entrenching a system that undermines due process, destabilizes communities, and normalizes conditions that Maryland has repeatedly found unacceptable.”
The lawmakers went on to request answers to the following questions for the Commissioners, noting that they do not permit public comments at their meetings and pointing out that similar questions from local residents have gone unanswered:
“As mutual representatives of the residents of Washington County, we urge the Washington County Board of County Commissioners to carefully and rigorously apply its existing zoning laws, land-use regulations, and comprehensive planning standards to any proposal to convert this warehouse into a detention facility. Doing so is essential to protecting public health and safety, ensuring orderly development, and upholding the County’s responsibility to its residents,” the lawmakers concluded.
View the letter.
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