[Disclaimer (Feb. 7, 2026): This article has been edited to provide an update regarding Representative Pat Ryan’s decision to donate campaign contributions received from ICE contractors].
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is planning to open a detention center in Chester, Orange County, 30 miles southwest of Vassar College. The proposal has drawn widespread condemnation from community members in and around Chester, as well as town, county and national elected officials. “I’m strictly against it,” Chester Town Supervisor Brandon Holdridge told The Miscellany News. “You see what’s happening around the country. I don’t want any of that here. I don’t want massive protests, or federal agents abusing civil liberties and killing people in the streets. I don’t want my residents being hurt or harmed by this nonsense that the federal government is taking part in.”
On Jan. 8, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which runs ICE, confirmed the plan with a mandatory environmental notice of activity in a floodplain. “ICE is proposing to purchase, occupy and rehabilitate a warehouse property at 29 Elizabeth Drive, Chester, NY in support of ICE operations,” the statement read. The property is a warehouse in the Village of Chester formerly run by the automotive service chain Pep Boys. It is currently owned by businessman Carl Icahn, who served as a special advisor to President Donald Trump during the first Trump administration.
“There’s very little power we actually have,” Holdridge explained. “Pep Boys is a private entity, a private company who owns that building. If they want to go into business with the federal government and lease it out, or sell it to the federal government, there’s not anything the Village of Chester can really do to stop that.” The Village’s population is about 4,000; the Town’s is about 12,000. (The Village of Chester is entirely encompassed by the Town of Chester. All Village residents are also Town residents, but the two municipalities have separate governing bodies.) ICE did not respond to a request for comment from a Miscellany reporter.
The Chester renovation is part of ICE’s nationwide project to turn 23 industrial warehouses into “mega” detention centers. In total, the centers would be able to hold over 80,000 individuals prior to their deportation. The Washington Post first reported the project in late December 2025, naming seven major centers that would each hold 5,000 to 10,000 people and 16 smaller centers designed to hold up to 1,500 people each. The Chester facility would be one of the smaller centers. “We need to get better at treating this like a business…like [Amazon] Prime, but with human beings,” ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons said at the 2025 Border Security Expo.
The Town and Village of Chester, as well as Orange County, submitted letters of opposition to ICE before the Jan. 16 deadline listed in the environmental notice. In its letter, according to a copy obtained by the Miscellany, the Town listed seven reasons for its “unanimous opposition” to the project, including that such a facility would endanger public safety due to its proximity to two sports facilities frequented by children; that the Village does not have the water or sewage capacity to accommodate a facility designed to hold 1,500 detainees plus guards; and that converting the site to federal ownership would shift a heavy tax burden onto local residents. ICE had not responded to the letters as of publication.
This nationwide project comes as Americans across the country continue to protest ICE’s seizures, detentions and deportations of hundreds of thousands of people. Since the second Trump administration began last January, ICE has deported some 230,000 people who were arrested within the country and another 270,000 detained at the border. Seventy-three percent of people ICE detained in 2025 had no criminal conviction and only five percent had a violent conviction. The majority of those with criminal records had only vice, immigration or traffic violations. In January 2026, ICE was detaining 73,000 individuals, a record-breaking high—84 percent higher than January of last year.
Over 30 people died while in ICE custody in 2025. Eight people have already been killed by ICE agents or because of the conditions in detention facilities in 2026. Among them are two American citizens. On Jan. 7, Renée Good, a mother of three, was shot to death by ICE agent Jonathan Ross in Minneapolis—Ross shot Good four times, including once in the head, while she sat in her car. On Jan. 24, also in Minneapolis, border agents Jesus Ochoa and Raymundo Gutierrez beat and killed Alex Pretti with 10 gunshots after he tried to place himself between an agent and two civilians. Pretti was carrying a lawful firearm but approached filming on his phone—not holding a weapon—and was disarmed and pinned to the ground before agents began firing. Good and Pretti are two of at least 13 people ICE agents have shot in the past year. Border Czar Tom Homan said on Jan. 13 that Ross had gone into hiding out of fear for his life. Ochoa and Gutierrez have been put on administrative leave.
Vanessa Cid, an Organizer for the progressive grassroots activism non-profit For the Many, wrote in an email to the Miscellany that a detention center in Chester would impact more than just the local area. “It’s the only proposed location in New York State and would likely be used to detain people from around the state, not just the Hudson Valley,” Cid explained.
Vassar President Elizabeth Bradley declined to either oppose or support the plan. “As a nonprofit organization, Vassar cannot take a political position on this project,” she told the Miscellany via email. “I defer to the elected officials and am happy to see a healthy debate to fully explore and understand all the possible implications of this project.” On whether a detention center so close to Vassar would increase the chances of ICE entering campus, Bradley wrote, “That is difficult to say and I cannot speculate.” The College’s policy is to only provide ICE with student or employee information if presented with a judicial subpoena and to notify the community if agents are on or near campus.
Community members and officials have loudly condemned the proposed center. Holdridge described his community’s reaction as “overwhelmingly negative.” He continued, “Of the email communications that I have received since the beginning of all this, literally 100 percent of them have been negative against any sort of ICE facility or presence in Chester.”
At multiple town meetings, residents strongly opposed ICE setting up shop near their homes. Outside, hundreds stood in the cold, protesting and waiting for a chance to speak. Holdridge told the Miscellany, “One hundred percent of the people who spoke at those meetings were in opposition to the facility coming in.” Representative Pat Ryan, whose district includes both Poughkeepsie and Chester, launched a petition on Jan. 13 aiming to stop the renovation. In one week, Ryan reported, over 10,000 Hudson Valley residents signed the petition. Orange County Executive Steven Neuhaus told The Times Union that a detention center in Chester would be “catastrophic” for the community.
Cid noted to the Miscellany that Ryan received over $134,000 from the software defense contractor Palantir, the most money of any Democrat in Congress and the third most of any congressperson. In April 2025, ICE signed a $30 million contract with Palantir to develop an “ImmigrationOS” software that will use artificial intelligence and data mining to find, track and deport suspected noncitizens. El País reported that the project violates Palantir’s own human rights policy. “We’re calling on Pat Ryan to reject Palantir money and call for ICE to be abolished,” Cid wrote.
On Tuesday, Feb. 3, Ryan posted a statement on social media pledging to donate all campaign donations from ICE contractors. “I’m refusing contributions from executives at ICE contractors, and donating any prior contributions to local non-profits supporting immigrants’ legal defense in the Hudson Valley,” Ryan wrote. According to The Daily Freeman, Ryan’s office said reports that he had received $134,600 from Palantir were inaccurate. His office did not provide a different total.
For the Many claimed responsibility for the congressman’s donation pledge. “Together, we posted, we sent emails, and we successfully pressured Pat Ryan to commit to donating past contributions from ICE contractors to local immigrant defense and refusing future contributions from them,” the organization wrote on Instagram. Ryan told The Daily Freeman that he had been considering such a donation for a long time and denied For the Many’s pressure contributed to the decision. In that interview, he rejected For the Many’s call for ICE to be abolished.
On Wednesday, Jan. 28, the Chester Town Board passed two anti-ICE resolutions. The first formally opposed the ICE facility and reiterated the opposition letter’s reasoning, according to a copy reviewed by the Miscellany. The second resolution called on the New York State Legislature to pass the Mandating End of Lawless Tactics (MELT) Act, which would ban ICE and other federal law enforcement officers from wearing masks or plainclothes while conducting immigration operations in New York.
On Thursday, Jan. 29, between 600 and 800 Chester and Hudson Valley residents gathered in Chester Commons Park to protest the proposed facility, according to Holdridge and Cid, respectively. Speakers at the rally included Holdridge, Ryan, Rural and Migrant Ministry Executive Director Richard Witt and Orange County Legislator Genesis Ramos.
Holdridge first heard of the proposed facility through constituents sending him the Washington Post article, then through DHS’s environmental notice. Likewise, Orange County Executive Neuhaus told CBS News that he had only learned of the plans through the environmental notice.
“ICE, or DHS or anybody from the federal government has not proactively reached out to either the Village or the Town of Chester since the beginning of all this,” Holdridge told the Miscellany. Village of Chester Mayor John Bell told constituents at a recent meeting that ICE had not submitted any permit applications. “[It’s] definitely more scary,” Holdridge said, of the fact that ICE had not communicated with local governments about its plans. “It doesn’t really help our confidence in them for working with the local community and being cooperative or collaborative.”