Orange County Executive Steve Neuhaus said on Feb. 13 that no paperwork had been filed as of that date with the Orange County Clerk to indicate that title to a warehouse property at 29 Elizabeth Drive in Chester had been transferred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Neuhaus was speaking in response to statements attributed to ICE that it had gone ahead and purchased the former PepBoys warehouse.
The warehouse encompasses 401,000 square feet with parking for 194 cars. ICE had tried to prevent the public and local officials from finding out about its interest in converting the warehouse into a detention facility for people its agents arrested. However, when it filed required government paperwork disclosing that its project would impact a flood area on the property, word of its plan for the warehouse got out.
In the face of ongoing opposition from the public and elected officials, ICE issued a statement saying that it had moved ahead and purchased the warehouse but did not provide details including disclosing when the purchase was closed.
Neuhaus said that he had not heard anything from federal officials from the time ICE first became interested in the warehouse until Feb. 13.
“You’re going to have a facility where you’re going to have thousands of protesters coming here at the same time they’re operating here in an industrial park,” Neuhaus said. “There are businesses all around the industrial park. There’s a commuter parking lot that is very actively used by people commuting to New York City on bus.”
Neuhaus noted that large protests have taken place outside of ICE detention facilities elsewhere in the U.S. He said that he talked with Gov. Kathy Hochul on Feb. 13 about the situation and asked her to have the New York State Police available to help local police with crowd control should ICE actually convert the warehouse into a detention facility. He also asked for the National Guard to be on standby.
“I have not had one elected official in New York state, in the Hudson Valley, in Orange County, call me and say they’re for this,” Neuhaus said. He is a Republican and pointed out that his Republican-controlled County Legislature voted unanimously against the project.
Neuhaus emphasized he has had “zero communication” from the Trump administration regarding ICE’s plan for the Chester site, which apparently is part of a larger plan to establish numerous sites across the U.S. where 100,000 or more people would be imprisoned. Neuhaus said that the county was restrained from filing a lawsuit to try to stop the ICE project until a deed showing that ICE actually owns the warehouse has been filed. However, he also did not commit to taking legal action to try to stop the project.
While ICE has persistently said it was imprisoning “the worst of the worst” criminals, in reality only a small percentage of those detained have a criminal record and detainees include U.S. citizens, children and immigrants who have been in the country legally.
Congressman Pat Ryan whose district includes Chester is among those who has been rallying the Hudson Valley community to stop ICE’s Chester plan. Ryan has now voiced an added concern about ICE reportedly leasing office space at 843 Union Ave., in New Windsor, close to New York’s New York Stewart International Airport.
Ryan demanded answers to what ICE is doing in New Windsor from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Acting ICE Administrator Todd Lyons.
“Let me be clear: the Hudson Valley does not support ICE expansion in our community,” Ryan told them. “More than 20,000 people have signed my petition opposing the proposed Chester detention facility. Bipartisan local leaders have condemned your plans. Our community has spoken with one voice: ICE’s terror campaign has no place here. Now ICE is quietly expanding its footprint in Orange County without consulting the people who live here. This is not how agencies operate in a democracy. The Hudson Valley will not stand for it.”
