Maryland attorney general asks court to halt work on immigration detention center

Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown asked a federal court to pause the build-out of a Western Maryland warehouse into an immigration detention center capable of holding 1,500 people while his lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security plays out in court.

Brown requested a temporary restraining order to block any construction at the 825,000-square-foot commercial space in Williamsport for 14 days.

Tuesday’s lawsuit comes days after DHS and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement awarded $113 million to a Gettysburg, Pennsylvania-based company to do the conversion, according to USASpending.gov.

Allowing the federal government to retrofit the warehouse while the legality of the building’s purchase remains in question would undercut the premise of a separate lawsuit Brown filed in February, according to court documents.

“But for Defendants, nothing is going to get in the way of building the machinery they desire for their immigration detention goals, not even federal law,” Brown wrote in the motion.

DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In the February case, Brown challenged the agency’s purchase of the warehouse, alleging that it skipped a key environmental impact review required by federal law. Such studies examine whether existing resources and infrastructure, such as water supply and sewer systems would support the potential of nearly doubling the town’s population of 2,000 people.

That lawsuit asks a federal judge to void DHS’ purchase of the warehouse and block any further development of the property.

Tuesday’s filing suggests immediate threats to ecosystems and natural waterways from the build-out.

“Once construction begins, the damage to Maryland’s waterways, protected species, and communities cannot be undone,” Brown said in a statement.

The Democrat also argued that changing the building’s features defeats the public’s ability to weigh in on the structure as it is.

The federal government’s “failure to provide public notice of their plans and the likely environmental impacts prior to the irretrievable commitment of federal resources to the decision renders any analysis conducted in secret fatally flawed,” the motion said.

DHS opened a roughly one-week public comment period that closed March 5.

DHS bought the 53.5-acre Williamsport property for $102.4 million from a private entity in January. Public documents say the facility would include “holding and processing spaces,” cafeterias, offices and health care space.