State agencies blast ‘deeply flawed’ ICE detention site, lawmakers want ‘immediate halt’ to project

by Rhiannon Evans, Maryland Matters
March 6, 2026

The heads of three Maryland agencies blasted the Trump administration’s “deeply flawed” plans to convert a Washington County warehouse into an immigration detention center, which they said poses a threat to the area’s wildlife and infrastructure.

The 10-page letter sent Thursday by the secretaries of Transportation, Environment and Natural Resources is the latest push from state and federal lawmakers fighting plans by Immigration and Customs Enforcement to build a 1,500-bed detention center on the site.

All nine Democrats in the state’s 10-member congressional delegation wrote a joint letter Thursday demanding that ICE and the Department of Homeland Security “immediately and completely halt” work on the Williamsport warehouse.

And the letters, which were filed on the last day of a severely shortened public comment period, came a little less than two weeks after Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown filed a lawsuit against DHS to try and stop the facility.

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“We have serious concerns that ICE is proceeding with this project in a secretive and rushed manner that will adversely impact the State,” said the letter signed by Natural Resources Secretary Josh Kurtz, Environment Secretary Serena McIlwain and acting Transportation Secretary Kathryn Thomson.

The letter came in response to an Early Notice and Public Review posted to the DHS website last week — more than month after the Jan. 16 purchase of the property for $102.4 million, according to public documents cited by Project Salt Box, a volunteer watchdog group tracking the project.

The secretaries’ letter said that notice was published “on or about” Feb. 25, giving the public no more than eight days to respond.

The notice stated that the DHS had considered three other potential detention facility locations in Maryland — two in Baltimore City and one in Sparrows Point — before deciding that the Williamsport site “advanced as the most viable option and is carried forward as the Preferred Alternative.”

Kurtz, McIlwain and Thomson called the notice “deeply flawed” and said it “cannot paper over the significant procedural and substantive deficiencies with ICE’s decision to purchase the property for the purpose of converting it into a detention facility.” The letter also called on DHS to extend the public comment period by at least another 30 days.

The secretaries raised concerns about potential impacts that the site — which is in a 100- to 500-year floodplain — might have on nearby waterways and on wildlife, including state-listed endangered species in the area.

They also cited the potential for damage to the community’s sewer lines and water infrastructure once the demand of a 1,500-bed facility is added to Williamsport, a town of just about 2,000 residents.

But the letter said that due to the lack of transparency from DHS regarding the environmental impacts, engineering specifications and change in water and waste flow, “it is impossible to fully evaluate the impacts that this project will have on the State.”

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Despite the lack of data, the secretaries wrote that the facility could pollute adjacent streams and rivers and raise the water temperatures, impacting local wild and aquatic life. Additionally, the letter states concerns that the facility may impede conservation efforts for the brook floater mussel and the green floater mussel, both listed as endangered species by the state.

The secretaries also wrote that the facility could cause traffic congestion and impact local emergency response times and access routes, although they could not say by how much, since information regarding staffing and site operations was not known at the time of writing the letter.

DHS plans to convert the warehouse into a 1,500-bed facility, nearly matching the population of Williamsport. Kurtz, McIlwain and Thomson estimate that a facility of this size will produce around 187,000 gallons of waste per day, which would exceed the capacity of existing sewer lines.

Those comments echoed statements from Attorney General Anthony Brown when he announced the lawsuit against DHS and ICE.

“DHS purchased this facility while keeping the State and the public in the dark, spending more than $100 million in federal taxpayer dollars without performing the required environmental review and without giving Maryland or Marylanders any voice in the process,” Brown said in a press release.

DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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