Judge orders pause on ICE detention center construction in MD

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A federal judge in Maryland on Wednesday issued a temporary restraining order halting construction work on an immigration detention center that the Department of Homeland Security had planned to begin operating next month, citing concerns about the facility’s potential environmental impacts.

Maryland Attorney General Anthony G. Brown filed an emergency motion on Tuesday seeking a 14-day pause on a renovation project transforming an enormous empty warehouse in Washington County into an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility that would house up to 1,500 detainees facing deportation.

The federal government, Brown argued, had not conducted required environmental impact studies on the Williamsport structure and was proceeding without public input or state consultation. Maryland sued the Trump administration in February to stop the project.

In his ruling Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Brendan A. Hurson granted Maryland’s request for a restraining order, saying that the state has shown that DHS and ICE had “likely failed to comply with their obligations under [the National Environmental Policy Act]. Defendants do not appear to have taken a ‘hard look’ at the potential environmental consequences of their plans for the Williamsport Warehouse.”

Hurson, a Biden appointee, pointed to concerns raised by the state that the existing infrastructure at the facility would be insufficient to support a population of 1,500 detainees. Failure to upgrade the system, the state argued, would “likely result in sewage backups and overflows creating public health hazards and environmental harm.”

Brown, in a statement Wednesday, said the court order “handed Maryland a critical victory, stopping construction that threatened our waterways, endangered species, and communities before irreversible harm could be done. … We will not let DHS and ICE rush through the proper legal process in their haste to ramp up deportations. We will keep fighting to make sure the law is followed and Marylanders are protected.”

A DHS spokesperson derided the decision. “Let’s be honest about this. This isn’t about the environment. It’s about trying to stop President Trump from making America safe again,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

DHS purchased the Williamsport warehouse in mid-January. Built in 2022, the 830,00‑square‑foot building on 53 acres in an industrial park will be retrofitted “to provide short‑term housing for individuals in immigration custody awaiting immigration processing and related administrative procedures,” according to a recent DHS notice.

The Williamsport facility is just one of a number of warehouses across the country that the federal government has planned to renovate into detention centers as part of an effort to deal with overcrowding inside local holding facilities. But residents and local officials in various states have fought to block the Trump administration from expanding the agency’s system for detention, particularly as ICE’s aggressive detention efforts have diminished public support.

Joe Heim joined The Washington Post in 1999. He is a staff writer for the Metro section. Jasmine Golden is a reporter covering crime and courts on the Metro desk at The Washington Post.