Maryland attorney general sues Trump administration over planned $102M detention center

Maryland’s attorney general Anthony G. Brown is suing to stop the construction of a new federal immigrant detention center in the state, according to court documents filed on Monday. 

The legal action in U.S. District Court concerns the planned conversion of a warehouse in Williamsport into a $102 million holding facility for up to 1,500 detainees under the purview of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Brown contends that the purchase overstepped federal authority and violated laws requiring environmental review and public input.

“The Trump Administration will stop at nothing to pursue its extreme immigration agenda—including breaking the law,” Brown said, emphasizing the threats the facility poses to the community and the secrecy of the purchase.

“DHS purchased this facility while keeping the State and the public in the dark, spending more than $100 million in federal taxpayer dollars without performing the required environmental review and without giving Maryland or Marylanders any voice in the process.”

The warehouse is one of several similar purchases made by the federal government in recent months, in view of a nationwide network of detention centers in support of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation efforts. The proposed centers have generated controversy in several states both for their purpose as well as the shadowy nature of the property acquisitions.

The Department of Homeland Security has quietly spent more than $700M on properties in Georgia, Texas, Tennessee, Michigan, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Arizona, and Maryland. The administration has targeted a larger goal of nearly three dozen government-owned facilities to the tune of $38 billion, part of a new funding increase for DHS in the most recent federal budget.

In a longer video statement on his state’s lawsuit against DHS, ICE, Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem, and acting ICE director Todd Lyons, Brown noted comments from Lyons last year in which he described his ideal deportation process as “like [Amazon] Prime, but with human beings.”

“Speed and efficiency at all costs, even if it means treating people like packages, and even if it means breaking the law,” said Brown. “It's not just happening somewhere else. It's happening here in Maryland.”

Brown, a Black Catholic, joins numerous voices in government and religion speaking out against the White House’s immigration enforcement efforts—which have led to widespread violence by federal agents, the detention of American citizens and lawful residents, as well as the effective suspension of the rule of law in various contexts.

Though Maryland is the first to directly sue the Trump administration over the construction of new detention facilities, attorneys general in various Democrat-led states are seeking to restrict them via zoning regulations and the enforcement of child welfare standards. 

The nation’s Catholic bishops have also repeatedly spoken out as a group against mass deportation and mass detention, as well as the dehumanization of immigrants and refugees by various Republican politicians. 

Most recently, a dozen U.S. Catholic prelates—including three who are themselves immigrants—released a statement on Tuesday ahead of Trump’s State of the Union address, urging respect for the human and constitutional rights of immigrants.

Earlier this month, the chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Migration spoke of the White House’s detention center push as “deeply troubling.”

“The private prison industry is who stands to gain the most from this supercharging of immigration detention,” said Bishop Brendan Cahill of Victoria in Texas.

“The thought of holding thousands of families in massive warehouses should challenge the conscience of every American. Whatever their immigration status, these are human beings created in the image and likeness of God, and this is a moral inflection point for our country.”

In response to the Maryland lawsuit, a DHS spokesperson told Maryland Matters that the state's opposition to the new facility is merely a political play.

“This isn’t about the environment. It’s about trying to stop President Trump from making America safe again,” the spokesperson said.

“These will not be warehouses—they will be very well-structured detention facilities meeting our regular detention standards. Every day, DHS is conducting law enforcement activities across the country to keep Americans safe.”

Nate Tinner-Williams is co-founder and editor of Black Catholic Messenger.

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