Last week, news broke that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been secretly using a building at 843 Union Avenue in New Windsor as offices for ICE’s lawyers without the knowledge of local elected officials.
At the same time, ICE told WAMC the agency had purchased another facility in Chester at 29 Elizabeth Drive – a former Pep Boys Warehouse owned by former Trump adviser and billionaire investor Carl Icahn. But Times Union reported ICE’s original claim was false and the purchase was not made.
There are seven immigration detention facilities currently operating in New York, from Buffalo to the Orange County jail.
Radio Catskill reported last week that ICE has been operating out of the New Windsor facility for months through a General Services Administration contract.
New Windsor Supervisor Stephen Bedetti told Radio Catskill he had no idea that ICE was operating out of the building and that it was covered in an “inordinate amount of cameras” outside and inside.
On Monday over 200 protesters organized by Mid-Hudson Valley Democratic Socialists of America gathered in front of the New Windsor office, chanting:
“No KKK, no fascist USA, no ICE!”
Newburgh City Councilmember, Giselle Martinez spoke at the protest about her own family's struggle to immigrate to the US.
“My parents' journey into youth, into the United States, was not easy, and despite having the legal documentation now, they're still treated less than. I am sick and tired of begging for us to be treated like human beings. First they come for the immigrants, and then they come for you,” Martinez said.
Wired reported that the Department of Homeland Security told the General Services Administration, the federal agency that manages federal buildings, to hide lease listings due to “national security concerns.”
Wired also first reported on the secret New Windsor Facility and another location in Woodbury, NY at 88 Froehlich Farm Boulevard.
A U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson would not confirm the New Windsor office locations to WAMC, because “our officers are facing a coordinated campaign of violence against them including an 8,000% increase in death threats against them and a 1,300% increase in assaults against them.”
The spokesperson’s statement went on: “Is it really news that when a federal agency hires more personnel that they need more space? Thanks to the Big Beautiful Bill, we have an additional 12,000 ICE officers and agents on the ground across the country. That’s an 120% increase in our workforce.”
Chester Town Supervisor Brandon Holdridge told WAMC, before news broke that ICE had falsely claimed to have purchased the Chester facility, that the warehouse-turned-detention center plan is rife with problems.
Sewage capacity is one of the issues. Holdridge says the village of Chester does not have any more capacity to allocate.
“There's literally nothing to give meaning, like there is no going over capacity. You're not supposed to, you know that, and then you get into territory of having your system shut down,” Holridge told WAMC.
The facility was originally designed to handle between 100 to 150 workers who go home. Holridge said ICE is claiming there will be 1,500 beds, meaning 1,500 people using the restroom – plus, visitors and staff.
The area is also an industrial park, with warehouses and offices that see major truck traffic going through. Any disruption would impact the whole area, Holdridge says.
“It's just one, it's just one road through the whole park, you know, from end to end,” said Holridge.
Holridge also said there’s no communication at all between ICE and local electeds.
“There's been zero communication since the very beginning between anybody from ICE or DHS and the village of Chester, the town of Chester and Orange County. So we have not heard a peep from them. The only reason we know of any of this happening at all is because of reporting from news outlets.”
He said ICE’s actions also fly in the face of all the local pushback.
“We just sent them a letter last week with 53 elected officials signed on to it from Chester, Orange County, and the Hudson Valley, saying how this is a terrible idea and please don't come here. So I would hope that that would mean something,” Holridge said and dryly laughed.
Holridge says the town could take legal action against the facility.
“The next step would be to initiate legal proceedings to keep them from converting it into an ICEfacility, which we are exploring at this moment,” Holridge said.
The Department of Homeland Security told WAMC on Tuesday the Chester facility would be well built.
“These will be very well-structured detention facilities meeting our regular detention standards. Sites will undergo community impact studies and a rigorous due diligence process to make sure there is no hardship on local utilities or infrastructure prior to purchase,” an ICE spokesperson wrote.
In addition, DHS argues the facility in Chester will be an economic boon, bringing more than 1,200 jobs and more than $37 million in tax revenue.
“These economic benefits don’t even take into account that removing criminals from the streets makes communities safer for business owners and customers,” the spokesperson wrote.
But Keith Williams, a Dutchess County community organizer with For The Many, grew up in Newburgh around immigrants – people whom he and others say they will continue to champion.
“The same people that smiled at hangings back in the 40s. You know, those people didn't go away. Those things were passed on, and we need to pass on, you know, the will to fight back, that we deserve more, that humans can be more.”
Valeria Inohosa, an organizer with the Mid-Hudson Valley DSA, said ICE is trying to expand its base of control.
“So we've been aware that [ICE has] the infrastructure to operate, but now they're really trying to settle into this as, like, a base of operations, right? Where they cannot only snatch people up and take them wherever, but house them in these incredibly inhumane conditions,” Inohosa said.
Brandon Parisel from Poughkeepsie had a Woody Guthrie song to share his feelings.
“Now there's people of every color living side by side in the cities across Europe, where a million fascists died, you're bound to lose. You fascist, bound to lose.”
