Maryland Community Rises Up to Halt ICE Warehouse Detention Center Amid Federal Overreach

HAGERSTOWN, Md. — The people of Washington County have made one thing crystal clear: they do not want a giant immigration detention center shoved into their backyard. What started as hushed concerns exploded into loud, unyielding protests outside county commission meetings, where officials tried to discuss everything but the controversial ICE warehouse.

The Department of Homeland Security quietly bought an 825,000-square-foot warehouse in this historically rich, small community known for Civil War battlefields and weekend cyclists. The plan was to transform this facility—built for storing packages, not people—into a detention center housing between 500 and 1,500 immigrants. But the community wasn’t having it.

“This is a facility built for packages, not people,” Patrick Dattilio, founder of the local anti-ICE group Hagerstown Rapid Response, told the crowd gathered outside a recent meeting. Protesters blared horns and chanted “Stop ICE!” drowning out discussions about mundane county business like solid waste budgets.

Despite the uproar, county commissioners bizarrely declared their “unwavering support” for DHS and ICE in a February proclamation. The move was met with such fierce booing and yelling that the commission president had to clear the room. The proclamation was then forwarded to former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, along with a wishlist of costly infrastructure upgrades the county hoped to leverage from the federal government.

Meanwhile, ICE, flush with a massive congressional budget, signed a $113 million contract to renovate the warehouse. But the project hit a legal roadblock when Maryland’s attorney general sued, prompting a judge to temporarily halt construction. A hearing is scheduled for mid-April, leaving the future of the facility uncertain.

Local residents feel blindsided and powerless. Carroll Sager, holding a sign reading “Disenfranchised in Washington County,” sat quietly amid the chaos. “We have had no voice in this,” she said, echoing a widespread sentiment.

Washington County is not alone in its resistance. Across the country, communities have pushed back against DHS’s plan to convert warehouses into detention centers. Lawsuits in New Jersey and Michigan highlight a pattern of secrecy and disregard for local input. Some towns have even threatened to cut off water supplies to these facilities, as seen in Georgia and Pennsylvania, underscoring the deep unease with the federal government’s tactics.

Questions also swirl about DHS’s spending. The agency reportedly paid far above market value for several warehouses, raising eyebrows about potential waste or worse.

As Markwayne Mullin, the current DHS Secretary, reviews the warehouse detention project inherited from Noem, the question remains: will the federal government bulldoze these communities’ concerns in pursuit of a brutal mass deportation agenda? Or will the growing chorus of resistance force a reckoning with the inhumanity and secrecy surrounding these detention centers?

For now, Washington County’s fight is a frontline battle in the broader struggle against ICE’s expansion and the Trump-era authoritarian blueprint it represents. The people have spoken loud and clear. The question is whether their voices will be heard.