DHS, ICE buy warehouse in MD for potential detention site

The Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement have purchased a Western Maryland warehouse in the wake of reports ICE was looking for a local facility to detain immigrants.

The warehouse along Wright and Hopewell roads was sold to Homeland Security and ICE on Jan. 16 for $102.4 million, according to the deed.

The Washington Post reported on Dec. 24 that the Trump administration is seeking contractors for a plan that includes renovating industrial warehouses to hold more than 80,000 immigrant detainees at a time, according to a draft solicitation The Post reviewed.

Among the sites The Post listed where the federal government is looking to establish a processing site, with 500 to 1,500 beds, is Hagerstown, though it wasn’t clear if the proposed facility could be within city limits.

A rally was held Jan. 20 at Public Square in downtown Hagerstown, attended by Rep. April McClain Delaney and Sen. Chris Van Hollen, to protest a proposed ICE detention facility in Washington County.

An ICE spokesperson sent an emailed comment on Wednesday afternoon, Jan. 28, in response to emails from The Herald-Mail asking Homeland Security or ICE to confirm if they are planning to use the Wright Road warehouse for the purposes of immigrant detention.

RELATED: Viral video shows overcrowded conditions inside ICE facility in MD

The ICE spokesperson’s response:

“We have no new detention centers to announce at this time. These will not be warehouses — they will be very well structured detention facilities meeting our regular detention standards. Every day, DHS is conducting law enforcement activities across the country to keep Americans safe. It should not come as news that ICE will be making arrests in states across the U.S. and is actively working to expand detention space.

“ICE is targeting the worst of the worst including murderers, rapists, pedophiles, gang members and more. 70% of ICE arrests are of illegal aliens charged or convicted of a crime in the U.S. Thanks to the One Big Beautiful Bill, ICE has new funding to expand detention space to keep these criminals off American streets before they are removed for good from our communities.”

The emailed response from the ICE spokesperson included references to five men who have been arrested in Maryland, describing them as “the worst of the worst.”

Each of the men was described in the ICE spokesperson’s email as a “criminal illegal alien” with three of them arrested in Hagerstown. Of the latter three, one was arrested “with convictions for sex offenses,” the second was arrested with “convictions for aggravated assault with a gun, cocaine, assault, and possessing a weapon,” and the third was described as being arrested “with convictions for drug trafficking.”

The email from the ICE spokesperson did not say whether the men had served their sentences.

Homeland Security and ICE did not immediately respond Jan. 28 to emailed questions from The Herald-Mail, asking Homeland Security and ICE to confirm plans for the warehouse. Homeland Security and ICE also did not respond to inquiries emailed Jan. 20, Dec. 30 or Dec. 31. Among the questions The Herald-Mail had reached out to ICE and Homeland Security via emails on Jan. 28, Jan. 20, Dec. 31 and Dec. 30, asking questions that included whether violent offenders would be held at an ICE facility in the local area and what security would be provided, noting there are residences nearby.

According to Washington County’s online zoning map tool, the warehouse property is zoned Industrial General. The tool links to a zoning ordinance document that states penal and correctional institutions, including jails, are a principal permitted use in Industrial General Districts.

RELATED: MD among states that may allow lawsuits against ICE agents

Washington County statement concerning proposed ICE facility

On Wednesday, Jan. 28, Washington County government issued a news release stating the county’s Historic District Commission, Washington County Planning and Zoning Department, had received a letter on Jan. 14 from Homeland Security.

The release, which also is posted on Facebook, states:

“The letter indicated that DHS was analyzing the potential purchase of the warehouse at 10900 Hopewell Road (A/K/A 16220 Wright Road), Williamsport, MD, to establish a “new ICE Baltimore Processing Facility” for use by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

“Elements of the project mentioned in the letter include, “construction of holding and processing spaces, office space, public-facing visitor space and installation of amenities, such as cafeterias, bathrooms, and health care spaces”. Proposed site improvements mentioned in the letter include, but are not limited to, “installing, upgrading, or rehabilitating existing parking areas, fencing, site lighting, landscaping, drainage/stormwater, recreation areas and cameras. Tentage and guard shacks may also be installed.”

“The letter was sent under a federal law that requires DHS to inform the local government of its determination on whether the project impacts historic property. In the letter, DHS communicated that the undertaking results “in a finding of No Historic Properties Affected”. The federal law in question does not give the County any opportunity to overrule that determination.

“Generally, the Federal Government does not need to respect local zoning regulations that conflict with federal mandates (often referred to as the Supremacy Clause). As such, federal government entities historically have not sought the zoning approval of Washington County Government for projects and has not done so with respect to the property at 16220 Wright Road.

“It is Washington County’s position that decisions about land use are best made locally. However, the legal reality when property is owned by the Federal Government is clear. Washington County is not able to legally restrict the federal government’s ability to proceed. DHS has not notified Washington County that a purchase has taken place.”

Delaney reaction about ICE buying Williamsport-area warehouse

“We have now confirmed the facility ICE purchased in Washington County. According to the county’s circuit court records, the address is: 16220 Wright Road, Williamsport, MD, 21795,” according to a release from the office of Delaney, D-6th.

“ICE’s covert acquisition of a warehouse in historic Williamsport — carried out without transparency, community input, or accountability — is unacceptable. I am in contact with the Governor’s office and Team Maryland’s Congressional Delegation and local leaders to demand answers from the Department of Homeland Security. Let me be clear: planning a detention facility behind closed doors is not governance — it is intimidation. For DHS to make such egregious plans in the cloak of darkness is yet another example of a lawless agency hellbent on harassing, assaulting, and killing our neighbors.

“Last week, I stood alongside hundreds of residents across Western Maryland to deliver a clear message to the Trump Administration: we do not want this facility in our backyard. Our communities will not be steamrolled, and our neighbors will not be targeted in silence. We will organize. We will show up. We will speak out. We will sue. And we will not stop fighting — together — until this proposal is stopped and our community is respected.”

At the downtown Hagerstown rally, McClain Delaney referred to a letter Maryland congressional members sent Jan. 20 to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Todd Lyons, acting director for ICE.

The letter refers to The Washington Post’s story and plans to hold detained immigrants at processing facilities, including in Hagerstown.

“It is our understanding that such a facility would be used to house noncitizens for as long as ‘a few weeks’ prior to their transfer to large-scale warehouses to facilitate deportations,” the letter says, referring to Post reporting. “Recently, we learned that last week a DHS official visited a potential processing facility site which is not designed or outfitted to house, feed or provide adequate care for detainees. It is deeply concerning that the proposed location is situated in an area of Washington County that is not zoned for overnight habitation, creating a direct conflict between DHS and local laws. Our congressional delegation demands more details on these proposed plans and the impact they would have on the local community,” the letter reads.

“As DHS is aware, the Maryland Dignity Not Detention Act prohibits state and local law enforcement from entering into agreements to detain individuals for civil immigration matters. In enacting this law, the state of Maryland definitively rejected any involvement in civil immigration detention,” the letter reads.

The Baltimore Banner, in a Jan. 27 story about the warehouse purchase, reported that the 2021 Dignity Not Detention Act prohibited state and local governments from contracting with ICE, effectively ending long-term immigration detention in Maryland because the only facilities holding ICE detainees were local jails.

The Banner reported that the law cannot restrict the federal government from operating its own detention facility.

Sen. Van Hollen’s reaction to ICE buying warehouse

Van Hollen, in an X post on Jan. 27 about the warehouse purchase, said:

“Trump’s ICE just purchased a warehouse in MD for $100M to hold 1,000+ detainees.

“Last week, I joined Marylanders demanding that ICE stay out.

“This Admin is spitting in the face of communities from Minneapolis to Maryland & wasting our tax dollars.

“We won’t back down.”

The Wright Road warehouse

The 825,620-square-foot warehouse and 53.74-acre Wright Road property was sold to Homeland Security and ICE by FRIND-Hopewell LLC with an address in Washington, D.C., according to the Maryland Department of Assessments and Taxation’s website.

FRIND-Hopewell bought the property in June 2022 for over $104.8 million from Wright Road Industrial LLC. Wright Road Industrial LLC had bought the property for $8 million from Taylor Farms I LLC in 2021.

Penzance, a real estate company, broke ground on the warehouse project in late summer 2021, according to a Herald-Mail report.

In partnership with the developer and with federal grants, Wright Road was widened and straightened between Hopewell Road and Elliott Parkway to accommodate growth in the area.

The warehouse project was valued at more than $35.3 million, according to permit information from the county in 2021.

Penzance had referred to the property as Hagerstown Crossroads at I-81.

To the east, the warehouse property borders a narrow two-lane Hopewell Road, a stretch along which there are homes. There also is a one-lane bridge along Hopewell Road near the property.

To the north and west, the property is near a business park along Elliott Parkway with business and government operations.

Elliott Parkway is off of Greencastle Pike, which has a nearby Interstate 70 interchange. The warehouse also has better access to Interstate 81 after an extension of Halfway Boulevard, off of Greencastle Pike, recently opened. There is an I-81 interchange with Halfway Boulevard.

Reporting by Julie E. Greene, The Herald-Mail / USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect.