Maryland Sues to Stop ICE Detention Center, Escalating Fight Over Secretive Federal Purchase

https://projectsaltbox.substack.com/p/maryland-sues-to-stop-ice-detention?

All kinds of sneaky stuff by the feds! (My editorial note)

The lawsuit follows an earlier challenge by a Washington County resident who found the government used the wrong address to quietly close a required historic preservation review.
Michael Wriston
Feb 23, 2026

Attorney General Anthony G. Brown filed a lawsuit Monday to block the conversion of a Washington County warehouse into a federal immigration detention center. Photo: Maryland State Government via Wikimedia Commons.

Maryland’s attorney general filed a federal lawsuit Monday to block the construction of a large immigration detention center in Washington County, escalating the state’s legal battle against a Trump administration project that critics say was deliberately hidden from public view.

The lawsuit, filed by Attorney General Anthony G. Brown against Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and Todd M. Lyons, the senior official performing the duties of ICE director, argues that the Department of Homeland Security violated federal environmental law when it purchased a 54-acre warehouse near Williamsport in January for $102.4 million — conducting the acquisition without the environmental review, public comment period, or state consultation that federal law requires.

“The Trump Administration will stop at nothing to pursue its extreme immigration agenda — including breaking the law,” Mr. Brown said in a statement. “We will not allow this Administration to treat laws like suggestions and threaten our people or their communities.”

Lots more at link