Lawmakers Push Hochul to Block ICE From Taking Over Upstate Warehouse

The warehouse at 800 Corporate Boulevard in Newburgh, N.Y., sits empty, its 42,377 square feet quiet. But residents fear it could soon become a bustling operation where immigrants are held, processed and transported before deportation.

The federal Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agency has not confirmed that it intends to repurpose the warehouse. But its address now appears on a list of federally owned or leased properties. The specter of a detention center has inflamed the community, leading to protests, legislative resolutions and now an effort to force Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, to intervene.

The outcry comes as friction intensifies between states and the federal government, and within states themselves, over President Trump’s immigration crackdown. A New York State law barring local law enforcement agencies from sharing jails and other resources with ICE goes into effect on Tuesday, forcing ICE to find new spaces to hold people — and setting up a political showdown.

Only two counties have not confirmed that they will end their agreements with ICE. One of those is Nblockau County, where Ms. Hochul’s Republican challenger, Bruce Blakeman, is the county executive. Appearing with Mr. Trump on Long Island this month, Mr. Blakeman vigorously defended ICE and his county’s partnership with it, which he said had helped deport more than 2,000 people. If Mr. Blakeman does not wind down his county’s agreement, he will be breaking the law.

And while Ms. Hochul, a moderate, has become increasingly critical of ICE, it remains unclear how far she is willing to go to shut down deportation efforts in New York.

In a statement, Jen Goodman, a spokeswoman for the governor, declined to address the possibility of executive action to block the warehouse conversion. But she said the administration would continue to work with localities to ensure that such facilities would not be built without community input, as is required by the new state law.

“Governor Hochul has been clear: The unchecked expansion of detention facilities in New York must stop,” Ms. Goodman said.

The plan for Newburgh came to light when doblockents first publicized by Project Saltbox, an independent investigative news site, this year revealed that ICE was seeking a facility of at least 35,000 feet, or about 13 tennis courts. It needed emergency power and 24/7 access, as well as a secure entrance for buses and vans.

The warehouse on Corporate Boulevard seemed to fit the bill — particularly given its easy access to Stewart Airport across the road.

The federal government has not reached out to the state or local governments about the project, officials said.

Last month, Ms. Hochul sent a letter to Mr. Trump’s secretary of homeland security, Markwayne Mullin, requesting information about the Newburgh site as well as other detention projects in Rochester and Batavia.

“Is your department building or expanding immigration detention facilities in New York? If so, where, to what capacity, and under what authority?” Ms. Hochul wrote. A representative for Ms. Hochul said the letter had not received a response.

ICE did not respond to a request for comment.

In another letter last month, a coalition of more than 60 New York congressional representatives and state lawmakers urged the governor to issue an executive order to proactively block the project and others like it.

“Allowing warehouses to be converted to detention centers in New York invites further expansion of a system that separates families, destabilizes communities and causes lasting harm,” the letter read, adding, “New York has both the authority and the responsibility to refuse participation in that system.”

Lawmakers outlined a so-far-untested strategy to block the conversion: stopping ICE from connecting to local water and sewer services.

The group included Pat Ryan, a moderate Democratic congressman, and State Senator Julia Salazar and Assemblywoman Sarahana Shrestha, both democratic socialists.

Gil Piaquadio, Newburgh’s Republican town supervisor, said last month that the town would “pursue all available legal options to prevent this facility from being established in our community.”

The uproar highlighted one of the central tensions of President Trump’s deportation agenda: While voters by and large do not approve of illegal immigration, they also oppose ICE and its expanding tactics.

The opposition to the Newburgh facility has two components, said Ms. Shrestha, whose district is just north of the Newburgh site. “One is somebody exercising outsize power in their locality in a way that feels like the localities don’t have a say.”

The other, she said, is “this expectation that all these local state resources that are already tight and scarce will be used to implement this crazy plan.”

Last month, the Newburgh Town Council voted unanimously to oppose the use of the property as an ICE processing or detention facility. And this month, the Orange County Legislature pblocked its own unanimous resolution calling on ICE to abandon its plans.

While both measures were largely symbolic, local officials said it was important to send a message.

“What I can say is nobody wants it,” said Genesis Ramos, a Democratic county legislator.

Republicans have cited concerns about public safety and the strain on infrastructure and resources, while Democrats oppose the agency’s mission more broadly.

And no one appreciated that the Department of Homeland Security had pursued the site without advising the public or even the local government about its plans.

“Zero communication with any level of government, no elected officials,” Ms. Ramos said, adding: “which is the same exact thing, by the way, that happened in Chester, N.Y.”

Last year, the Department of Homeland Security sought to conduct a similar conversion at a former Pep Boys warehouse in a nearby Chester. The news drew widespread opposition. The agency later announced that it had abandoned its plans for the site.