Order to Halt Work at Proposed Maryland ICE Detention Center Extended

(WILLIAMSPORT, MARYLAND) — U.S. District Judge Brendan A. Hurson issued a temporary restraining order on March 11, 2026, halting construction at the proposed ICE detention center in Williamsport, Washington County, Maryland, for up to 14 days while a state lawsuit proceeds.

The order, which remains in effect, pauses work on a plan to convert a recently purchased warehouse near Hagerstown into a detention facility for 1,500 detainees. The ruling marked an early court intervention, not a final decision on the underlying claims in Maryland’s case against the Department of Homeland Security and ICE.

Maryland filed suit in February 2026, arguing federal agencies moved ahead without the environmental review and public comment required under the National Environmental Policy Act. Hurson found the state had shown the agencies “likely failed to comply with their obligations under [the National Environmental Policy Act]” and did not take a required “hard look” at environmental consequences.

That finding stopped, at least for now, a fast-moving federal project that called for renovations from March 6 to May 4, 2026. DHS bought the 800,000-square-foot warehouse for over $100 million in mid-January 2026 and planned to turn the property, which spans more than 50 acres, into a large detention center rather than build one from the ground up.

The scale of the conversion and the compressed schedule drew scrutiny from state officials almost immediately. Maryland’s lawsuit centers on how quickly federal agencies sought to move from acquisition to construction on a site that would hold 1,500 detainees.

Judge Hurson’s order gave the state an early procedural win, but the broader dispute now turns on whether DHS and ICE can show they met their legal obligations before work began. For now, the temporary restraining order keeps the project on hold in Williamsport as that fight continues.

Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown tied the state’s challenge to risks he said extend beyond the warehouse property itself. He said stormwater runoff and pollution from construction could affect Semple Run Creek, Conococheague Creek, and ultimately the Potomac River.

Brown also pointed to possible harm to rare and endangered species in western Maryland. His office argued the agencies pressed forward without assessing those effects before scheduling construction.

The state’s concerns also focused on water, sewage and public health. Maryland argued local water and sewer infrastructure is not equipped for a detention center of this size, raising the risk of sewage backups, overflows and other public health hazards.

Those allegations reached beyond construction impacts alone. Maryland also said federal agencies had not assessed public health and safety effects, including disease outbreak risks such as measles seen at similar facilities.

The warehouse’s existing condition became part of the state’s argument about the speed and scale of the proposal. Maryland said the site currently has only two toilets and two water fountains, a detail Brown’s office used to question whether the surrounding infrastructure could support a detention center for 1,500 people.

Brown cast the dispute as a straightforward legal challenge to how the project advanced.

“Federal immigration authorities are barreling past their legal obligations in a effort to build an immigration detention facility as quickly as they can,”

He said, adding that “once construction begins, the damage to Maryland’s waterways, protected species, and communities cannot be undone.”

After Hurson issued the temporary restraining order, Brown called the decision “an initial victory.”

“Though temporary, this ruling stops the construction of this massive immigration detention center while our lawsuit continues to play out in court. We will not let DHS and ICE rush through the proper legal process in their haste to ramp up deportations.”

In an interview, Brown also said, “Regardless of where you stand on immigration enforcement. the federal government has to follow the rules.” That argument sits at the center of Maryland’s case: not whether immigration detention can occur, but whether federal agencies complied with environmental law before launching the conversion in Washington County.

Hurson’s ruling suggested the state made that threshold showing. By concluding Maryland was likely to succeed on its claim that the agencies failed to comply with NEPA, the judge signaled concern about the process used to start the project, even as the larger litigation remains unresolved.

DHS answered with a sharply political response and rejected the idea that the fight primarily concerns environmental compliance.

“Let’s be honest about this. This isn’t about the environment. It’s about trying to stop President Trump from making America safe again.”

Federal officials have also defended the proposal on operational and economic grounds. They say the facility will meet detention standards once complete, create over 1,000 jobs, and generate tens of millions in tax revenue.

That response sets up a direct clash with Maryland’s case. The state says the agencies skipped steps required before work began, while DHS and ICE say the project should be viewed through the lens of detention capacity, public safety, jobs and local revenue.

The Williamsport dispute comes as federal officials push a wider expansion of ICE detention capacity. The project is part of a national growth plan backed by a 2025 congressional package that included $45 billion.

That money has supported purchases of at least seven warehouses in 2026 for over $690 million. The acquisitions aim to raise detention capacity from under 40,000 to around 70,000 people.

Against that backdrop, the Maryland case has become one of the first tests of how quickly the federal government can move on newly acquired properties. By buying an existing warehouse and scheduling renovations within weeks, DHS and ICE chose a model designed for speed, and that speed now sits at the heart of the legal challenge.

The Williamsport site illustrates that approach in concrete terms. DHS acquired the property in mid-January 2026, then set a renovation window from early March into early May 2026, a rapid timetable for turning a warehouse on more than 50 acres into a detention center for 1,500 people.

Maryland’s lawsuit argues that urgency does not excuse compliance with federal environmental law. The state says public comment and environmental review should have come before construction activity, especially for a project of this size and for a site tied to waterways, wildlife concerns and local utility capacity.

The case also lands in a broader pattern of environmental and land-use challenges to detention growth. Similar lawsuits have targeted projects in other states, including a Florida case involving “Alligator Alcatraz” in the Everglades.

That wider national fight gives the temporary restraining order in Maryland added weight. Although the ruling does not decide the merits, it shows courts may intervene at an early stage when states argue federal agencies moved ahead without the review process required by NEPA.

For residents around Williamsport and near Hagerstown, the case has turned a warehouse conversion into a dispute over rivers, sewers, wildlife and the pace of federal expansion. For DHS and ICE, it is part of a larger effort to add detention beds quickly through warehouse purchases rather than slower ground-up construction.

Both sides have framed the stakes in starkly different ways. Maryland says the issue is legal compliance before irreversible work begins, while DHS says opponents are using environmental arguments to block a detention project tied to President Trump’s enforcement agenda.

Hurson’s order does not settle that clash. It does, however, keep heavy work off the site for now and preserves the status quo as the court weighs whether the federal government can proceed with a project Maryland says threatens waterways, protected species and public health.

That pause may be temporary, but it has already reshaped the timing of a project federal officials had sought to move from purchase to operation with unusual speed. As the lawsuit moves forward, the dispute in Williamsport stands as a closely watched test of how far environmental law can slow the federal detention buildout backed by $45 billion and aimed at lifting capacity to around 70,000 people.