Maryland Sues to Stop ICE Detention Center, Escalating Fight Over Secretive Federal Purchase
The lawsuit follows an earlier challenge by a Washington County resident who found the government used the wrong address to quietly close a required historic preservation review.
Maryland’s attorney general filed a federal lawsuit Monday to block the construction of a large immigration detention center in Washington County, escalating the state’s legal battle against a Trump administration project that critics say was deliberately hidden from public view.
The lawsuit, filed by Attorney General Anthony G. Brown against Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and Todd M. Lyons, the senior official performing the duties of ICE director, argues that the Department of Homeland Security violated federal environmental law when it purchased a 54-acre warehouse near Williamsport in January for $102.4 million — conducting the acquisition without the environmental review, public comment period, or state consultation that federal law requires.
“The Trump Administration will stop at nothing to pursue its extreme immigration agenda — including breaking the law,” Mr. Brown said in a statement. “We will not allow this Administration to treat laws like suggestions and threaten our people or their communities.”
Governor Wes Moore, a Democrat, also backed the suit, saying the administration had spent more than $100 million in taxpayer money “without an environmental review and without public input.”
The lawsuit represents a significant escalation of a procedural fight that began with a more narrow challenge. On Feb. 3, a Hagerstown resident filed a formal objection with the Maryland Historical Trust, arguing that the government had used the wrong street address — listing the site as 10900 Hopewell Road rather than its deed address of 16220 Wright Road — to issue a finding of “No Historic Properties Affected” and close a required federal preservation review before the public knew the facility existed.
That objection, obtained by Project Salt Box, argued that the address discrepancy allowed DHS to bypass nearly every step required under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act, including public notice, a community consultation period, and residents’ right to request formal status in the review process. The facility was not publicly disclosed until Jan. 28 — twelve days after the purchase closed.
Monday’s suit adds two additional legal theories. Mr. Brown alleges that DHS and ICE violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) by proceeding without assessing the project’s environmental impacts or considering alternatives, and violated the Administrative Procedure Act by abandoning its own past practice of conducting such reviews for similar detention projects without any reasoned explanation.
The facility, a commercial warehouse built between 2021 and 2023 with 825,620 square feet of space, was designed for industrial use. At the time of purchase it contained only four toilets and two water fountains. DHS has said it intends to convert the building into a detention center capable of housing 1,500 people at a time — a population that would nearly equal that of Williamsport itself, a town of just over 2,000 residents.
The lawsuit notes that records suggest preparations began well before the public disclosure. Washington County approved land acquisitions for a road project serving the warehouse corridor in May 2025. That same month, the county’s transit development plan identified the warehouse address as a site expected to generate high traffic volumes. In August, the warehouse’s previous owner refinanced the property and extracted $15.9 million in cash.
The project has also exposed the limits of Maryland’s own detention protections. Under the state’s Dignity Not Detention Act, enacted in 2021, local jurisdictions are barred from contracting with ICE or private companies to house federal detainees, and private detention facilities must provide 180 days’ notice before opening. But because DHS purchased the warehouse outright rather than leasing it or contracting with local government, legal experts say those provisions may not apply — leaving federal environmental and preservation law as the primary avenues for challenge.
County officials have said they were not consulted about the facility’s conversion.
Mr. Brown’s lawsuit asks a federal court to halt the project until DHS completes the reviews the state says the law requires. It is among a wave of state-level legal challenges to the administration’s immigration enforcement expansion, which has included the purchase of warehouses in multiple states for conversion into large-scale detention facilities.
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Let’s call these centers exactly what they are- concentration camps! Many of these are being bought and/ or built without notice, esp public notice. They are using our tax dollars to harm, abduct and abuse anyone who isn’t white and who doesn’t bend the knee. We all must band together to stop this evil from spreading and taking over our country!!
I am a resident of Washington County and I vehemently oppose the conversion of this warehouse into an ICE concentration camp. I am concerned that our County Commissioners are allowing (encouraging?) this to happen with no public notice or proper procedure. I support the lawsuit brought by Maryland's Attorney General and Governor to halt this project.