ICE Moves Dozens of Vehicles From Exposed Baltimore Garage Ahead of Protest
Roughly 50 unmarked federal vehicles left the Symphony Center garage Wednesday, relocating to at least two other downtown sites hours before a demonstration organized to expose the staging location.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement vehicles staged at a Baltimore parking garage quietly relocated to at least two other downtown locations Wednesday, hours before a protest organized to draw attention to the staging site was set to begin.
Beginning around 3:00 P.M. and continuing at least until 8:30 P.M., eyewitnesses reported to Project Salt Box the movement of roughly 56 unmarked vehicles — some bearing ICE parking placards, most without license plates — from the upper floors of the Symphony Center garage at 1030 Park Ave. The garage is part of a trio of buildings owned by the Maryland Transit Authority (MTA) and leased to David S. Brown Enterprises, an Owings Mills-based company. It is operated by Federal Parking Incorporated (F.P.I.).
The evacuation came a day before a demonstration organized by Indivisible Baltimore, which had announced plans to protest the use of the Symphony Center lot as a vehicle staging site for federal immigration enforcement.
The vehicles’ presence at the Symphony Center garage had been known to local advocacy groups since at least January. Numerous vehicles inside the structure were flyered Wednesday with notices informing drivers of its use as a staging site.
Eyewitnesses observed the vehicles parking at the Veterans Affairs parking annex on West Fayette Street and at the Centerpoint Garage at 310 West Baltimore Street. At the Centerpoint Garage alone, eyewitnesses reported at least 90 unmarked vehicles — none bearing license plates and all matching the makes and models of the vehicles observed leaving Symphony Center — parked in the structure. According to publicly available land records, the Centerpoint Garage and the Centerpoint Apartments at 8 N. Howard Street are held as a single parcel by M.F. Blue Valley Apartments L.L.C., a Delaware-based corporation.
A representative for Centerpoint said the company was “aware” of the ICE vehicles parked in the garage and declined to comment further. F.P.I., which also operates the Centerpoint Garage, did not return a request for comment.
As first reported by the Baltimore Banner, Ashley Effinger, a representative of David S. Brown Enterprises, wrote in an email Wednesday afternoon that the vehicles would be moved by 4 P.M. Eyewitnesses reported movement continuing more than four hours beyond that deadline. In a follow-up email, Effinger added that the company was unable to “provide anything more than what I have provided.” The company declined to provide additional details about the move, including why the vehicles were relocated, how long the removal took, and who owned them.
Senator Chris Van Hollen addressed the episode Thursday. “Trump’s ICE continues to ignore questions from Congress about their taxpayer-funded purchase of dozens of vehicles,” Van Hollen said in an email statement to The Banner. “We will keep pushing for answers on where these vehicles have gone and what ICE intends to do with them.”
The relocation adds a new chapter to what Project Salt Box has documented as a pattern of mounting federal enforcement activity in the Baltimore region. As indicators of an ICE surge have accumulated over recent weeks, this publication has tracked federal contracting activity and infrastructure changes pointing to an expanded enforcement footprint by immigration agencies in Maryland.
Despite the vehicles' departure, the protest proceeded Thursday morning. At least 100 demonstrators gathered at the Symphony Center garage to oppose local businesses serving as staging sites for federal immigration enforcement, said Barbara Aylesworth, an organizer with Indivisible Baltimore, in a phone call Thursday.
Isn't DSB the company that tore down the Mechanic Theater to "develop" what has now been a giant hole in the ground for the past decade?
It makes me proud of Baltimoreans that the new locations of the vehicles were known within hours of their departure from the Symphony Center garage. People tend to notice when 50+new cars without license plates show up where they live and work.