The small Village of Chester, New York, is home to about 4,000 residents and sits in the state’s Black Dirt region, known for its deeply fertile soil. It’s also the site of a proposed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility under the Trump administration.
If built, the Chester facility would be Orange County’s second immigration facility. The Orange County Jail currently serves as a detention facility in Goshen, where the number of people detained by ICE has exploded in 2025 since the start of Trump’s second term.
The Chester site is the only facility proposed in New York state outlined in the Trump administration’s latest plans to detain more than 80,000 immigrants.
Hundreds of people gathered outside the Chester Senior Center ahead of a village board meeting to protest the plan. Residents traveled from across the state – including Orange, Sullivan, Ulster, Dutchess, and Columbia counties – to oppose the immigration facility.
Orange County resident Candida Bido said the growing immigration raids feel like a “nightmare.”
“Every day, we wake up to go to work, and we have to look out over our shoulder, outside our windows, before we even head out to do our job,” said Bido.
At least 32 people have died in ICE custody in 2025, making it the deadliest year for those in immigration custody in decades.
Former Pep Boys warehouse owned by Trump ally billionaire
Formerly the Pep Boys warehouse at 29 Elizabeth Drive, the proposed facility is tucked within an industrial quarter of Chester with manufacturing and distribution warehouses.
The 404,000-square-foot warehouse is also owned by IEP Chester LLC – a subsidiary of Icahn Enterprises, the holding company owned by billionaire and former Trump advisor Carl Icahn.
Congressmember Pat Ryan launched a petition on Tuesday to stop any further plans, with several local and county lawmakers backing the petition. The Village of Chester Mayor Tom Bell said that “the Village has not received any application and has not received any direct communications from any representative of the federal government or any representative of the owner of 29 Elizabeth Drive concerning the potential use of the warehouse at that location.”
Following the leaked ICE documents obtained by The Washington Post, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security posted a Notice of Activity on Jan. 8 with its intent to “purchase, occupy and rehabilitate” the warehouse property.
More than 20 Rural & Migrant Ministry (RMM)’s youth participants have had their parents detained in the past six months, says RMM Executive Director Richard Witt.
“[The youth are] living in fear. They’re deeply concerned about the separation of families, and they’re concerned about their own futures,” said Witt.
The Orange County facility is one of 16 smaller processing sites and seven larger-scale detention facilities. The smaller sites could hold up to 1,500 people before they’re transferred to a larger detention facility ahead of deportation.
What residents said
Large crowds of people flooded the grassy lawn area and the parking lot outside the Chester Senior Center, as several hundred more lined up to enter the building and make a public comment.
Poughkeepsie City Councilmember Daniel Atonna said there’s no need for ICE in the Hudson Valley or anywhere.
“[ICE] will hurt, harm, kill anyone who stands in their way. The only thing that can protect us is if we’re out here in numbers saying we need to abolish and prosecute ICE [and] make that very clear to Congress,” said Atonna. “Anything less is unacceptable.”
Chester resident Mia Rosario said the small village is a community where she feels welcome, but an ICE facility would transform her sense of safety.
“ My family is a family of Hispanics. I’m a proud Latina, and I don’t want to be in fear that my sister is gonna get pepper sprayed at school or that my stepdad might get harassed about his citizenship just because he is very Dominican,” said Rosario.
As the meeting ended, hundreds of protestors chanted “Abolish ICE” while leaving the building, vowing to return if the proposal pushes through.
Image: A protestor holds two signs condemning ICE at a Jan. 12 protest in Chester, N.Y. (Photo Credit: Kimberly Izar)
An Artist’s Philosophy-Aphorisms and Artwork
#361 EVERYTHING STARTS SMALL: Ice crystals, snow — a blizzard begins when water vapor collects in clouds and freezes into ice. Hardly noticeable at first, one by one the crystals gather together, hold hands, and gain weight until they collectively drop to the earth below, often suddenly, immobilizing all movement beneath a thick covering of ever-increasing weight, ever-increasing mass, which, after years turns into thick glacial ICE.
Surprise Me — Oil on Ivorine — 4×6 inches
https://medium.com/@easleyart/an-artists-philosophy-aphorisms-and-artwork-0c2221329015?postPublishedType=repub
If people are here illegal they need to go home. A law is a law.