Local Community Organizations and Elected Officials Warn DHS of Potentially Disastrous Consequences of Rushed Plan to Convert Warehouse into Massive Internment Facility

Today, local community organizations and officials submitted a formal comment to DHS in response to a “scoping notice” indicating DHS plans to move forward with converting a warehouse meant for cargo into a massive immigrant internment facility and human warehouse in Western Maryland.

The comment highlights DHS’s failure to provide basic, concrete information about its plans to detain thousands of people in the small community and emphasizes that the scope of the proposal could be devastating for local infrastructure and environment, most notably by overloading the region’s already-limited sewage capacity and water supply.

Noting the project’s rushed, highly politicized origins, the comment urges DHS to reconsider, or to at least provide detailed information and to conduct a full Environmental Impact Statement based on the operation of the mass detention site with a transparent opportunity for public input. The comment explains: “We need to be able to plan for our future here in Washington County regardless of which way the political winds are blowing in Washington, D.C.”

The comment was submitted on behalf of Maryland State Delegate Matt Schindler, Hagerstown City Councilmember Caroline Anderson, Hagerstown City Councilmember Erika Bell, Hagerstown City Councilmember Tiara Burnett, Hagerstown Rapid Response, Washington County NAACP, Washington County Indivisible, and the ACLU of Maryland, all of whom represent or have members who live in the area that will be directly affected by the new detention center.

“Whatever your politics, a massive new project has significant consequences for local infrastructure and environment and community members deserve to know what those are," said Sonia Kumar, Senior Staff Attorney at the ACLU of Maryland. "DHS needs to stop hiding the ball from the hardworking taxpayers who will have to live with the consequences of its rushed and reckless plans.”