1. United States
2. Md.
3. Letter

I'm asking you to take action to permanently stop the ICE detention center planned for Williamsport. Judge Brendan Hurson's preliminary injunction on April 15 exposed serious problems with this project, and it should not move forward. The federal government spent $102 million on a warehouse without conducting proper environmental impact studies or assessing the impact on our waterways and sewer infrastructure. When pressed in court, Department of Justice attorneys couldn't even provide specifics about who conducted pre-purchase community impact studies. This is reckless spending on a facility our community doesn't want and our environment can't support. This 1,500-capacity detention center would strain local resources and harm Washington County. Weekly protests in Hagerstown show the depth of opposition here. Attorney General Anthony Brown is right that this threatens our waterways, environment, and communities. Federal authorities have now admitted no detainees will be placed there until further studies are done. That creates an opening to stop this permanently. Use your position to demand those studies show the real costs to Maryland, and work to block federal funding for a facility that fails basic environmental review and ignores community input.