On Monday, A band played “De Colores” outside of the Newburgh Town Hall, before the Newburgh Town Board unanimously approved a resolution opposing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's use of a warehouse at 800 Corporate Blvd.
Hundreds of people showed up outside of the Town Hall to protest news that Immigration and Customs and Enforcement could be leasing a warehouse in the town.
This came the same day as an ICE agent shot a 26-year-old Colombian man in Maine.
John Bauza, a 32-year resident of the town, said at the rally that ICE does not belong in the community, but said he suspected they might move into the neighborhood.
“Pat Ryan stopped a facility going up in Orange County as well, and since that happened, I was keenly aware that one of these warehouses was going to come around here. Because we're the corners of the crossroads of the Northeast. That's what this town board says. And I said, ‘Wow. Very central location, lots of warehouses, one plus one equals two, right off the throughway, right off 84.’ You know, it just made sense,” said Bauza referring to reports of another immigration facility in Chester and the many warehouses in the Town of Newburgh.
The General Services Administration (GSA) awarded a 15-year lease in June to a Texas-based contractor, Leverage Enterprises, Inc for $35.57 million, first reported by Project Salt Box.
GSA documents showed the government was looking for a space for “detainee buses” and vans, 24/7 government access, and a location near Stewart Airport.
Desiree Osario, spoke at the rally about her own experience dealing with immigration enforcement.
She said her husband was taken to Orange County Jail and deported. She said, after his deportation he was kidnapped and said she had to pay a ransom to free him. She said her son asks her at night, “Why is my daddy not coming home?”
“People ask what family separation looks like. It looks like my son when he stopped eating solid food. When he stopped talking, he wasn't making a political statement. He wasn't thinking about immigration policy. He's just a little boy who does not understand why his dad is not home, and why his dad never came home,” Osario said on Monday to a crowd.
The Town Board voted at the beginning of the meeting on the resolution before the public comment began.
The resolution included several reason why the warehouse should not be used by ICE, including that the area where 800 Corporate Boulevard is is already an “overburdened community” and the detention facility could “compound the burden.”
They also brought up the potential safety concerns to the town’s water and sewage facilities. They said the area already hosts several federal, state and private facilities like Stewart Airport, New York Air National Guard Base, two power plants, and more.
Amanda Martin was at the rally with her family and has lived in the town for 10 years. Her husband, Zach Pickens, carried a large American flag and they said for them it represents that the people are in charge in the United States.
“People deserve to be treated like neighbors and to go through a process -- a legal process. No one deserves to be rounded up like cattle in the street, or worse. And that's not something we are interested in our tax dollars paying for. That is not something we are interested in our child witnessing on the news or in our streets. And yeah, we're waving this flag because we all live here. That's ours too,” Martin said.
On Monday, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul Hochul also wrote to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin seeking information about the Newburgh warehouse and about plans to increase capacity at the ICE facility in Batavia in western New York.
She also referenced plans for U.S. Customs and Border Protection to create detention cells at a federal building in Rochester.
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security told WAMC in reference to the Governor’s letter, “Policies of not cooperating with ICE put New Yorkers in danger. And that “when politicians bar local law enforcement from working with DHS, our law enforcement officers have to have a more visible presence so that we can find and apprehend the criminals let out of jails and back into communities.”
Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
