By KATELYNN WINEBRENNER
Capital News Service
As speculation about the opening of a new Immigration and Customs Enforcement center in Washington County circulates, county and federal officials are clashing over the next course of action.
The Washington County Board of Commissioners has unanimously passed a resolution of support for the Department of Homeland Security. But U.S. Rep. April McClain Delaney, D-Maryland, has introduced legislation in the House of Representatives to prohibit any Congressional funding for such a center.
“This is not just a little facility,” McClain Delaney told Capital News Service in an interview. “It is actually one that is going to be precedent-setting for our whole country.”
The Washington County Public Relations and Marketing Department released a statement at the end of January that said the Department of Homeland Security had reached out to the county regarding a “new U.S. ICE Baltimore Processing Facility.”
After this announcement, McClain Delaney said she confirmed DHS’ purchase of a warehouse in Williamsport, Maryland by looking at local property records. The 825,000-square-foot property would have space for 1,500 beds, she said.
Since the news broke, many residents of Washington County have tried reaching out to officials with questions about the facility and what could be done to stop it, but responses have been scarce.
“It’s been two meetings now that the warehouse has been under scrutiny here in the community, that it’s all finally come to light, and at neither of those two meetings has a commissioner said a word about the warehouse situation,” said Dave Williams, a member of the progressive activist group Washington County Indivisible.
County leaders’ inboxes have been overwhelmed by residents, said John Barr, the board’s president, on NEWSTALK 1037FM earlier this month. Certain messages have become threatening, he added.
“It’s very concerning, and I think the rhetoric needs to calm down,” Barr said. “If they are coming and we can’t stop it, I think we need to put our heads together, and as they always say, make lemonade out of lemons.”
CNS reached out to Barr and the other board members to discuss the facility but was not able to speak or email with them directly.
Residents like Williams are unhappy with Barr’s message.
“It was just disgusting,” Williams said. ”The lemon that he’s talking about is basically a concentration camp, so how do you make lemonade out of something like that? It was an embarrassing statement for him to make.”
During the board’s Tuesday meeting, residents gathered to hear and protest the county’s resolution of support.
“Most of the people entering the room were opposed to the resolution, and they were opposed to the whole warehouse detention center concept,” Williams, who attended the meeting, said. “So, most of the energy was negative.”
As the board began introducing the resolution, defiant coughs and whistles blew through the crowd.
“If there’s any additional noise, outcries, comments,” Barr said. “I will suspend this meeting.”
The resolution expressed the county’s “full support for DHS and ICE,” declaring “its intent to support … enforcement of our nation’s borders, safeguarding the integrity of our immigration system, and ensuring that all persons are treated with dignity and compassion within our jurisdiction.”
As the board unanimously approved the resolution, loud boos and another sharp whistle erupted from the audience.
“Clear the room,” Barr said as he abruptly suspended the meeting and officials ushered the audience out of the room.
The county statement announcing the proposed facility referred to the supremacy clause, a constitutional principle that states federal authority supersedes local, to explain its lack of control over the situation.
However, McClain Delaney said the clause might be negotiable in situations like this.
“When there are unconstitutional violations or there are human rights violations, our state and our governor can say no,” she said. “When the health and well being of residents within the state that are my constituents are not treated with basic human rights, then we say, no.”
