Hundreds rally against ICE as judge agrees to block detention center construction

A federal judge on Wednesday limited further construction on a planned Washington County immigration detention center, saying the government’s plans for the facility and its impacts on the environment were unclear and inconsistent.

U.S. District Judge Brendan A. Hurson said that environmental injury, “by its nature, can seldom be adequately remedied” by monetary damages and is often permanent. Those concerns, he said, are exactly what’s at stake if construction were to continue at the site.

Hurson did say Immigration and Customs Enforcement can continue with security construction and basic renovations. These measures include adding a security fence, security cameras, fiber optic cable and repairing the warehouse’s HVAC system and roof.

Hurson also allowed the federal agency to continue with the construction of administrative offices within the warehouse, just to allow the agency to protect its investment. “This is not going to be a back door to secretly build a jail,” Hurson said.

Wednesday’s order is an extension of a temporary restraining order Hurson issued in March, in response to the state of Maryland’s lawsuit seeking to block the project, which aims to turn an 825,000-square-foot warehouse into a detention center for up to 1,500 people.

State: ICE’s claims for detention center ‘border on absurd,’ court should block construction

The state claims that the Department of Homeland Security has worked largely in secret on the project and has failed to perform required environmental and historical reviews. Not only does construction at the site threaten nearby waterways, but a facility for 1,500 people threatens to overwhelm the water and sewer systems of nearby Williamsport, a town of about 2,000 people, the state claims.

Hurson’s ruling was welcomed by Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown.

“Today’s preliminary injunction is a victory that stops federal authorities from irreversibly damaging our waterways, our environment, and our communities before our lawsuit is even decided,” Brown said in a prepared statement. “And it ensures that the federal government cannot rush through the legal process required to open this facility in its frenzy to carry out its deportation goals.”

Tierra Bradford, who was in the courtroom as the judge issued his decision, said Hurson’s ruling made absolute sense.

“I’m surprised how ill-prepared the Department of Justice was,” said Bradford, who works at the ACLU but was not speaking on behalf of the organization. “It seemed they had no information on what they were basing their analysis on.”

Ross Wells, a Takoma Park resident, agreed.

“They couldn’t answer a lot of basic questions about when things were decided and who wrote what report,” Wells said.

In addition to filling the courtroom gallery and two additional overflow rooms, hundreds of protestors rallied outside the U.S. District Courthouse in Baltimore before the case was set to be heard. They included familiar faces from the Hagerstown No Kings Protest last month, with speakers from the Washington County chapter of the NAACP, Washington County Chapter of the Indivisible and We Are CASA.

Washington County Indivisible’s Laura Spivak, who helped organize the Hagerstown No Kings Rally, described how she lives less than five miles from the proposed detention site. She spoke of how her children take gymnastics classes a half-mile away from the facility.

“As a mother, it strikes fear in my bones. As a Washington County resident, it turns my stomach,” Spivak said. “But as an immigrant? It breaks my heart.”

Ama Frimpong, representing We Are CASA, said that it’s important to keep trying to stop ICE at every turn, to protect Maryland’s values.

“We are human,” Frimpong shouted to the crowd, her voice echoing off the courthouse that stood behind her. “We deserve to be treated with dignity and respect.”

Carrington Scott, a Baltimore resident, was at the rally with two of his friends. Scott said he decided to show up after seeing a call to protest what’s happening in Washington County.

“It’s years of oppression on the immigrant and working class community across this country,” Scott said. “I’m here because the fight has always been against ICE, against racist police terror, against white supremacy.”

Scott said that he hopes Marylanders will look at those protesting and the results of the court case and will “wake up.”

“A lot of the struggles that people are caring for are the same,” Scott said. “And the best way to end those is to work together and fight togehether.”

— This story was updated on Friday, April 17, to correct the spelling of Laura Spivak’s name.