ICE May Arrive, And Not Just the Kind on the Highway

The Town of Chester's 300-acre Industrial Park was developed

almost 40 years ago by V. Paulius and has contributed much in the way

of tax benefits to the Chester Community, housing several large

commercial entities and about a dozen smaller ones.

It currently has several warehouses that are not in use.

Federal ICE Officials are Considering Chester Industrial Park Warehouse(s ) as one of about 23 sites where they want to house a total of about 80,000 immigration detainees.

At a Press Conference Geoff Herbert of Syracuse.com. reported that according to the Department of Homeland Security over 579k people have been deported over the past year. The new ICE plan, still in its early stages, would renovate warehouses across the U.S. including intake, housing units with restrooms, a kitchen, dining areas, a medical unit, indoor and outdoor recreation areas, a law library and administrative offices. Theser would be. "mega-detention centers" for immigrants that they said "that would accelerate the removal process and promote the safety, dignity and respect for all in ICE custody", according to the solicitation draft.

According to the Post, Herbert said "Larger deportation centers would have up to 10,000 beds. One of the smaller processing sites would be at a warehouse in the Hudson Valley Town of Chester that could fit between 500 and 1,500 beds.

The "Plan" is still in early stages, but involves sending out RFP's to Detention Companies and create locations. The primary objective, according to the Washington Post is to "establish a deliberate feeder system" with potential to hold up to 80,000 total immigrants at a time".

Bearing in mind that this news just broke yesterday, Chester Supervisor Brandon Holdridge has reportedly acknowledged that he is "against the plan". and Village of Chester Mayor said he is withholding comment until after he hears more details, especially since the plan is still in draft status and changes are likely to be made before they upen up formal requests for bids.

US Representative Pat Ryan was more vocal with outrage yesterday saying the plan would function “Like Prime, but with human beings.” Ryan added

"That’s how ICE is describing its new facilities, including a proposed location in Chester (which hasn't been coordinated with local leaders in any way, FYI)

It’s disgusting, infuriating, & UNAMERICAN. Our community will not stand for it."

Numerous rather obvious roadblocks seem like they would be at issue including the major issues of local Code Violations on properties privately owned and not currently zoned for housing, but rather in an area designed for industrial development and Small Business, and referred to such in the Town's Comprehensive Plan.

ZONING is currently restricted to General business and light manufacturing with the following permitted uses: office, hotel, retail, manufacturing, warehousing, laboratory and research.

Oversight responsibilities by Orange County Health and Human Social Services might be overwhelming. This would put local officials in a possible  “No Win” position because while critics have charged that that many individuals as "detainees and then deportees" have been claimed to not receive "Due Process" and been "Arrested without cause or warrant" and the system needs a decent plan, no other plan has been devised. And meanwhile, this kind of housing at other sites has been a nearly catastrophic failure, with ICE officials refusing proper local oversight, such as in Newark where the City’s Mayor was arrested during a time that the Mayor was onsight legally. The failures of these plans can be traced back to the original flaw of many of these detainees allegedly not being given proper due process to begin with. AND, NO OTHER NEW, MORE FAIR AND DETAILED PLAN, FOR ASYLUM SEEKERS EVEN BEEN DRAFTED?

This potential situation is reminiscent of the bus loads of immigrants brought to area motels in 2022, followed by judicial decisions at the pressure of Orange County Executive Steve Neuhaus that halted in their tracks the hundreds of questionably legal immigrants being bused here.

During recent years some immigrants with pending legal decisions have been kept at the Orange County Correctional Facility while their legal status was evaluated in court. But those have been a limited number of primarily local individuals, not hundreds or thousands that would be shipped here ostensibly away from their previous local home and jurisdictions… which brings up another issue, of potentially overwhelming local courts about issues ostensibly from other jurisdictions where the cases probably should have been held.

Is this really any different from the Japanese internment camps.? How long would they be kept there before full due process is completed? What would today's "Due Process" for them look like?

The biggest issue for many Americans is how many of the immigrants seeking asylum were already deported without due process and without any criminal history, since only asylum seekers with criminal histories were to going to be the criteria sought for deportation this year.

How is the decision going to be made of where they go, whether locally or in another country, when released after their lives have been upended, or deported? What happens when they get dropped off in another country with no money? Will some kind of humanitarian assistance from that country be negotiated? Or will the other country be paid on the US taxpayer's dime to keep them in yet another detention center when some have done nothing illegal.

In the coming days we will likely hear a lot more on this “Plan” from Chester Supervisor Brandon Holdridge, County Executive Steve Neuhaus,  District … Senator James Skoufis and possibly Governor Kathy Hochul.

Credit for portions of this story to Geoff Herbert is a Reporter, SEO Lead and Content Supervisor for Syracuse.com, the New York Post Standard and Advance Media New York.