Meet the 'Rebel Alliance' Taking On Trump's Secret ICE Warehouse in Maryland

In January, the Department of Homeland Security quietly purchased an 825,620-square-foot vacant warehouse just outside Hagerstown, Maryland, intending to convert it into a processing center for immigrant detainees. The purchase, made through an emergency military procurement process to avoid public scrutiny, stunned the small community and sparked an urgent backlash.

Patrick Dattilio, a local software developer and father of four, found himself at the center of a rapidly growing resistance movement. What began as a small Signal group inspired by Minnesota’s immigrant rights activists exploded in membership as neighbors realized the warehouse was no longer just an abstract threat. “Maybe it’s 10 years, maybe it’s 20 years, but if I’m still here, my kids are going to ask me what I did. And I don’t know how I could look at them and say I did nothing,” Dattilio said.

The group, dubbed Hagerstown Rapid Response, quickly mobilized volunteers to research local codes, file public records requests, and monitor activity near the warehouse—including using drone surveillance. Their protests, once nonexistent in this quiet town, became a regular feature at county board meetings, with chants and music blasting outside government chambers.

The Trump administration’s plan to convert industrial spaces nationwide into detention centers has drawn pushback in multiple communities, but nowhere has the resistance been as organized or fierce as in Washington County, Maryland. State Democratic Attorney General Brian Frosh filed a lawsuit challenging the project on environmental grounds, leading a federal judge to pause most work at the site.

Locally, the political battle is heating up. The all-Republican county board pledged full support for DHS and ICE but restricted public comment, fueling frustration. Now, eight Democrats are running for seats on the board, hoping to gain influence and use local regulatory tools to stall or block the facility.

Dattilio likens their fight to a “rebel alliance” from Star Wars—aiming to clog the gears of government bureaucracy to make the detention center’s construction so costly and complicated it becomes untenable. With the Trump administration having spent nearly $1 billion on 11 such warehouses nationwide, local resistance like Hagerstown’s is one of the few brakes on this expansion of a for-profit detention system notorious for inhumane conditions.

The story of Hagerstown’s fight is a stark reminder that even in conservative strongholds, ordinary people are rising to challenge the Trump administration’s authoritarian overreach. Their efforts expose not just the cruelty of ICE detention but also the administration’s willingness to bypass transparency and community input to push its agenda.

The residents living near the warehouse, like Chuck and Mary Brown, who have decided to sell their home and move away, face the personal costs of this fight. But for Dattilio and his growing network, the stakes are clear: resisting now is the only way to protect their community’s future and hold an abusive administration accountable.