Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown is suing the Department of Homeland Security to stop the transformation of a Washington County warehouse into an immigration detention facility, citing environmental and public health concerns.

The Department of Homeland Security purchased an 825,000-square-foot facility and its 53.5-acre Williamsport property for $102.4 million from a private entity last month. Public documents say the facility would include “holding and processing spaces,” cafeterias, offices and health care space.

The facility is one of dozens planned across the country as the Trump administration accelerates its deportation campaign.

The suit filed on Monday in the U.S. District Court in Baltimore could be a roadmap for other states seeking to limit the federal agency’s footprint.

In a video statement, Brown said the administration “secretly” purchased the warehouse without consulting with the state or surrounding community.

“Federal law gives Marylanders the right to know when and how detention facilities are built in their communities,” Brown said. “That right was denied. Today, our office is taking them to court.”

The lawsuit claims that the federal government failed to conduct an environmental assessment required by federal law to determine how the warehouse would affect the surrounding area, including local waterways. The suit asks a federal judge to void DHS’ purchase of the warehouse and block any further development of the property.

“In their zeal to purchase and convert the Williamsport warehouse into an immigration detention facility, defendants have run roughshod over federal law and trampled on the State’s interests,” the suit reads.

Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said the lawsuit “isn’t about the environment. It’s about trying to stop President Trump from making America safe again.”

Brown has been at the forefront of dozens of legal battles pushing back against the Trump administration’s policies. Earlier this month, Gov. Wes Moore asked Brown and state agencies to ensure the building’s purchase complied with state and local laws.

Moore said Monday that he supports the attorney general’s actions.

The governor questioned how the agency that denied millions of dollars in federal help to Western Maryland after a devastating flood and took nearly a month to respond to a massive sewage spill in the Potomac river now has the money to “buy a warehouse for human beings.”

“We just think their priorities are off base and that it’s going to hurt the local economy inside of those areas,” Moore told reporters Monday.

Members of Maryland’s federal delegation have decried conditions at DHS’ Baltimore field office and strongly opposed the agency’s opacity.

A leaked video from a holding room inside the George H. Fallon Federal Building on Hopkins Plaza showed men sleeping in cramped conditions. Detainees have said they were denied access to basic hygiene, bathing and food.

Moore demanded answers from DHS Secretary Kristi Noem in a letter earlier this month. In a Feb. 7 response, a federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesperson confirmed the facility had been purchased for use as a detention center. The spokesperson said the facility would meet ICE’s detention standards.

Washington County’s all-Republican commission approved the work of the DHS and ICE in a public vote earlier this month. Protesters both inside and outside the hearing room jeered and blew whistles in opposition, causing the commission to abruptly cut the video’s livestream.

Meanwhile, 75 miles away in Democratic-led Howard County, officials revoked a permit for a proposed facility in Elkridge. Democrats in the Maryland General Assembly are drawing boundaries between residents and federal immigration enforcement.

Moore signed a bill banning local law enforcement from acting as an extension of immigration enforcement, a responsibility of the federal government. Lawmakers made banning ICE agreements a top priority despite opposition from local sheriffs forced to end the so-called 287(g) agreements.

House Minority Leader Jason Buckel, an Allegany County Republican, accused Democrats of being more focused on appeasing activists than getting results for Marylanders. In a statement Monday, he said that Democratic lawmakers are unhappy with the conditions in ICE’s Baltimore holding center and unhappy when detainees are transported to far-away detention facilities in other states.

“Now, they complain when the federal government undertakes efforts to construct a modern, safe and hopefully humane facility for federal detainees in a county that already approved the transaction,” he said.

Several other measures related to immigration are also working their way through the General Assembly this session, including a bill to ban law enforcement from wearing masks and another allowing residents to sue the federal government over civil rights violations.

Lawmakers have tried to get ahead of the federal government’s efforts with bills aimed at regulating immigration detention facilities, though their ability to do so is uncertain. One bill would require explicit zoning approval before private immigration detention centers could operate in Maryland; the other would create new standards and oversight for conditions inside immigration facilities.

The bills highlight the state’s limited power over immigration policy, which is the purview of the federal government.

Banner reporter Pamela Wood contributed to this story.