Judge blocks construction of Washington County ICE facility

Mathew Schumer, Baltimore Sun on Mar 11, 2026

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A federal judge blocked the proposed construction of a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center in Washington County, Maryland, in a ruling Wednesday.

The ruling is the latest update in a lawsuit filed by Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown, alleging that ICE had failed to conduct environmental review procedures before the agency purchased the Williamsport facility for over $100 million in January.

State officials estimated that the facility had the capacity to house about 1,500 detainees — more than half of Williamsport’s population.

Despite outcry from lawmakers and residents against the facility, the Washington County Board of County Commissioners ended its neutral stance on the facility in February and passed a resolution to fully support ICE and the Department of Homeland Security in its immigration crackdown.

Earlier that week, U.S. Rep. April McClain Delaney and U.S. Sens. Angela Alsobrooks and Chris Van Hollen addressed a letter to the board, asking them to disclose how the facility would impact the surrounding area.

Aside from ICE’s investments in other parts of Maryland, the agency maintains a field office at the Federal Building in Baltimore, where it has begun stockpiling supplies en masse, such as shelf-stable meals.

The office has also garnered ire for holding detainees at capacity for longer than it was built to house them. In a February visit to the Baltimore field office, U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin said that detainees were held for up to a week at the facility, which was only intended to hold detainees for 12 hours.

But when Maryland lawmakers made an unannounced visit to the Baltimore facility earlier this week, they discovered that it no longer housed any detainees.

Still, AG Brown filed another lawsuit earlier this week against ICE over the conditions in the “holding rooms” at the office, though ICE officials claim that no violations are happening at the facility.

“Today a federal court handed Maryland a critical victory, stopping construction that threatened our waterways, endangered species, and communities before irreversible harm could be done,” said Brown in a statement Wednesday.

DHS and ICE officials did not immediately respond to questions about the ruling.

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