Overview
- Filed Feb. 23 in U.S. District Court, the lawsuit alleges DHS and ICE bypassed required environmental review and public input and seeks to void the purchase and enjoin any work.
- According to the complaint, ICE bought the 54-acre, roughly 825,000-square-foot warehouse near Williamsport on Jan. 16 for $102.4 million to convert it into a facility with about 1,500 beds.
- Maryland warns the project could overwhelm local sewer capacity and harm nearby waterways and protected species, while raising traffic, sanitation and broader public-health concerns.
- DHS and ICE say the properties will operate as structured detention facilities that meet agency standards, casting the case as opposition to detention as the department expands capacity nationwide.
- Washington County commissioners backed the project and cited federal immunity from local zoning, and the suit positions Maryland to test how environmental review requirements can constrain DHS’s warehouse-conversion strategy; the filing says ICE is targeting completion by September.