NY Assemblymember Says ICE Won’t Pursue Orange County Facility, But ICE Has Not Confirmed

New York Assemblymember Brian Maher (R,C-Walden) said on Friday that he received confirmation from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that the federal agency would not be moving forward with a proposed ICE facility in Chester “at this time.”

But Radio Catskill reached out to ICE on Friday after receiving Maher’s press statement for more information but did not hear back in time for publication and was not able to confirm whether the federal agency is still considering the former Pep Boys warehouse in the Village of Chester.

Maher, who represents the 101st Assembly District comprising parts of Delaware, Orange, Otsego, and Ulster counties, said in a press release on Friday that he spoke with a senior advisor to the director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement while Maher’s been deployed overseas in the Navy Reserve.

During a virtual meeting with ICE officials, Maher says officials “explained that an outside vendor had identified multiple properties nationwide as part of a broader review of strategically located facilities. The Chester property was among dozens of sites evaluated.”

Maher said he raised concerns with federal officials about the Chester warehouse being used as an ICE facility, including the area’s infrastructure limitations and unified bipartisan opposition from local officials and residents. The site is part of the Trump administration’s broader plans to detain more than 800,000 immigrants through a network of new detention centers and processing sites, according to The Washington Post.

Following the meeting, Assemblymember Maher said he received confirmation that ICE would not be moving forward with the Chester warehouse at this time after completing a review process.

Orange County Executive Steven Neuhaus posted a video statement on Feb. 20 that while he thinks local officials have a “great chance” in blocking the proposed facility, he says “I don’t think we’re 100 percent out of the woods. [ICE] could go to a different site, they could be going to another county in our Hudson Valley.”

Neuhaus mentioned in the video statement that Assemblymember Maher had reached out to him from deployment but did not offer additional details.

The announcement from Maher comes days after ICE retracted a previous statement that the agency had bought the 401,000-square-foot warehouse in Orange County, calling the statement sent to several media outlets “a mistake.”

“ICE has NOT purchased a facility in Chester, New York. That statement was sent without proper approval and this mistake has been rectified,” said an ICE spokesperson in an email to Radio Catskill on Tuesday evening.

READ: ICE Retracts Claim It Bought Chester Warehouse, Calls Statement a ‘Mistake’

Kaity Ward, a spokesperson for Assemblymember Maher, said Maher spoke with ICE in the past 24 hours. “The ICE official confirmed there are no other Hudson Valley sites that have been identified at this time,” Ward told Radio Catskill.

This is a developing story.

Image: Exterior of the former Pep Boys warehouse in Chester, N.Y. (Photo Credit: Kimberly Izar)