A vacant warehouse in New York's Hudson Valley has become a sudden flashpoint after the federal government signed a lease for a high-security facility that records indicate is intended to hold immigration detainees. The move has caught local officials off guard and drawn opposition from a county that says it was given no warning.
The deal centers on a property in the Town of Newburgh, in Orange County. According to lease records, the federal government executed a 15-year lease late last month for space at 800 Corporate Boulevard, a warehouse-and-office building on a roughly 10-acre campus, in an arrangement valued at about 35.5 million dollars and awarded to a Texas-based contractor.
The lease itself does not name the tenant, but a trail of federal records has pointed to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. A federal listing tied the site to the Department of Homeland Security and ICE, and an online document briefly linked the project to the agency before that reference was removed.
The requirements laid out for the building read like the blueprint of a detention center. The federal solicitation calls for a dedicated sally port, a secure enclosed vehicle entrance capable of accommodating government vehicles including detainee buses and vans, along with 24-hour government access, heightened federal security, secured parking and an emergency generator.
Local leaders say they found out almost by accident. Orange County Executive Steve Neuhaus told News 12 that the county learned of the lease only earlier in the week and had not been contacted by any federal official, while the town supervisor said the town had received no prior notice from the Department of Homeland Security or ICE about the plans.
The response from the community has been swift. The town board has adopted a resolution joining Orange County and other municipalities in opposing the use of any warehouse in the county as an immigration detention center, and officials said the county and town intend to fight the plan if detainees are to be held there.
The site fits a pattern of federal interest in the area. ICE had previously eyed another warehouse in nearby Chester before backing away, and the agency already has legal offices in New Windsor, not far from the Newburgh location that is now in the spotlight.
For now, much about the facility remains unconfirmed, including exactly when it might open and how it would be used, as federal authorities have not publicly detailed their plans. The property sits near Stewart International Airport, an Air National Guard base and several major highways, and activists have already begun raising concerns and organizing in protest.