More than 50 doctors in Western Maryland are raising alarm bells about the potential ICE detention facility that the Department of Homeland Security wants to build in the area.
The doctors said in an open letter that the conversion of an 825,00 square foot warehouse into a center that can hold as many as 1,500 immigrant detainees will have significant impacts to individual and public health.
“The conversion of a warehouse in Williamsport to a DHS facility poses significant impacts to the physical and mental health of detainees, as well as health threats to the community through communicable diseases and strain on emergency services,” the doctors wrote. “With the health of our community as our foremost concern, we as healthcare providers in Washington County oppose the construction of this facility.”
The doctors note that DHS’s self-reported conditions of detention centers show noncompliance with medical standards, issues with environmental health and sanitation and overcrowding.
The doctors say overcrowding dramatically increases the risk of airborne and fecal illnesses.
“This has already caused outbreaks of influenza, COVID, mumps, and hepatitis A in detention facilities. More recently, DHS facilities have seen outbreaks of mumps and measles,” the letter states. “There has even been an increase in reported cases of tuberculosis in these facilities. In addition to causing misery and threat to life of the detainees, there is no guarantee that communicable diseases will stay confined to the detention facility.”
Most notably, the Camp East Montana detention facility in El Paso, Texas reported 14 cases of measles earlier this month.
Baltimore’s ICE detention facility drew criticism earlier this year for its extreme overcrowding, causing lawmakers to visit the center.
The doctors also say Western Maryland’s emergency services will be stretched past capacity by facility.
The closest hospital only has eight volunteer paramedics, but the physicians estimate the center could add 135 911 calls a year.
They also note the closest hospital, Meritus, already struggles to see patients in a timely manner.
Finally, the medical professionals point out that detained people, especially children, are at higher risk for anxiety, depression and PTSD.
The letter comes as Maryland Gov. Wes Moore and Rep. April McClain Delaney (D-Md.) held meetings about the facility.
The facility is currently in limbo after U.S. District Judge Brendan Hurson extended a temporary restraining order on the conversion of the building last week.
“To fully consider the parties’ arguments on Plaintiff’s incoming Motion for Preliminary Injunction and to preserve the status quo during that time, the Court finds that there is good cause for an extension,” Hurson wrote.
Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown announced he was suing the Department of Homeland Security over the facility in February.
DHS bought the property for $102 million in January and then awarded a $113 million contract to KVG LLC to renovate the building into a detention center that can hold up to 1,500 people.
Maryland’s lawsuit says the White House is moving ahead with the conversion of the facility without conducting proper environmental assessments or asking for public comment.
“A facility this size would generate nearly four times more wastewater than the site was designed for, risking sewage overflows on the property and backups throughout the surrounding community, increased traffic, air quality impacts and the burden of local emergency services were never assessed,” Brown said in a statement.
The allegations echo what residents in the small town of Williamsport, where the building is located, and in nearby Hagerstown, have been concerned about.
Brown also alleges that DHS violated the Administrative Procedure Act by acting without explanation or any consideration of alternatives.
“We're asking the court to halt construction and operation of this facility. We're asking the court to require a proper environmental review with full public input, and we're asking the court to declare that what the administration did here was unlawful,” Brown said.
The facility sits at the crossroads of Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia and Pennsylvania and is part of a larger DHS plan to open ICE detention centers across the nation that could hold about 85,000 immigrants.
