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Residents Spoke Out Against Siting Detention Center in Warehouse Park Amidst Barbaric Tactics Targeted At Immigrant Communities, and American Citizens
By Tina Traster
The tiny Village of Chester, pop. 4,000, is in an extremely unenviable position. The Trump Administration is planning to purchase a vacant PepBoys distribution warehouse in Orange County to convert to a processing facility for immigrants.
More than 400 people from the village, the surrounding Town of Chester, neighboring Orange County towns and cities, and from farther afield in the Hudson Valley flooded the stand-room-only Senior Center (Village Hall was too small for anticipated crowds) to implore elected officials to do whatever it takes to stave off the federal government’s attempts to site a detention center in the community. The former PepBoys warehouse distribution center is located at 29 Elizabeth Drive in Chester Industrial Park.
While roughly 200 people were admitted into the room to fill seats and stand in a cordoned off section of the room, another 200 attendees protested against the proposal while waiting for spots to come free. Those who spoke, some in tears, others with palpable anger, said they did not want their village to host a detention center, particularly in an era of brutal immigrant roundups, lack of due process, rending of families, indecent treatment of people, and shocking killings such as the point blank shooting of Renee Nicole Good, the 37-year-old mother shot in the face by ICE agent Jonathan Ross on January 7 in Minneapolis.
National media, regional and local media alike converged on the village to cover the meeting.
“We have an unstable president who has no rectitude or regard for the rule of law,” said Michael Sussman, a former candidate for Orange County Executive. “This is a rare moment in American history,” calling the proposed detention center “a concentration camp.”
Several speakers talked about the sense of fear pervading the immigrant community, forcing families to hide or stay away from schools and businesses. “The decision would not only affect Chester but surrounding towns like my hometown of Middletown that already feels the presence of ICE,” said Roni Balderas. “Families already feel targeted and vulnerable, businesses are already struggling, people are afraid to go to work, seek help or live freely. I urge you all to stand with communities that are already hurting and to choose dignity, safety, and humanity.”
How much choice or power local officials will have may be a David and Goliath struggle because it is unclear how much sway local zoning rules will have when faced with the federal government’s decision to purchase and convert the former PepBoys warehouse distribution center. It is unclear whether the Village of Chester will be able to exert home rule or zoning laws to prevent the immigration processing center from opening in the jurisdiction. Existing zoning allows “as-of -right” wholesale, storage and warehouse facilities, manufacturing, processing, producing and fabricating operations, research laboratories, business and industrial offices.
Generally, property owned by the federal government, including its agencies like Homeland Security, are not subject to local zoning laws. While many federal agencies work with local governments to ensure federal land use is compatible with surrounding areas, local laws don’t bind them. Compliance is voluntary and discretionary.
Homeland Security filed a “Notice of Activity in a 100-Year Floodplain in Chester, NY,” citing its intentions: “ICE is proposing to purchase, occupy and rehabilitate a warehouse property at 29 Elizabeth Drive on nearly 36 acres in the Village of Chester in Orange County.”
Village of Chester Mayor John Bell said the village has not received any application or communication “concerning the potential use” of the warehouse. Neither he nor board members made public statements about the proposal.
But public officials including the Town of Chester Supervisor Brandon Holdridge, county and state legislators and Orange County Executive Steve Neuhaus have expressed opposition to idea of a detention center in the region.
“I’m in favor of supporting legal action when required but the federal government is acting extra-judiciously,” said County Legislator Jonathan Redeker (District 2). “We’re living in a dangerous new world where it seems fine to act first and ask questions later. The people of Orange County must stand up for our shared humanity and reject this inhumane federal proposal.”
The former 400,000 square-foot PepBoys Distribution Center has been shuttered since 2024. The facility is owned by IEP Chester LLC, which is an affiliate of Icahn Enterprises LLC. Carl Icahn is the founder and controlling shareholder of Icahn Enterprises, a public company and diversified conglomerate holding company based in Sunny Isles Beach, Florida. He was Special Advisor to President Trump on Regulatory Reform from Jan. to August 2017.
The Trump administration is seeking contractors to overhaul the United States’ immigrant detention system in a plan that includes renovating industrial warehouses to hold more than 80,000 immigrant detainees at a time. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is being pressured by the administration to speed up deportations by establishing a feeder system.
Newly arrested detainees would be booked into processing sites like the one proposed in the Village of Chester for a few weeks before being funneled into one of seven large-scale warehouses holding 5,000 to 10,000 people each, where they would be staged for deportation. The seven facilities are in Stafford, VA, Hutchins TX, Hammond LA, Baytown, TX, Glendale, AZ, Social Circle, GA, and Kansas City, MO.
ICE Acting Director Todd. M. Lyons has said: “We need to get better at treating this like a business,” as the Arizona Mirror first reported at a border security conference in April 2025. “The administration’s goal, he said, “was to deport immigrants as efficiently as Amazon moves packages. Like Prime, but with human beings.”
Chester is among 16 locations targeted for “processing centers,” and the only one located in New York. The plans have been revealed at a time when thousands of people are protesting the brutal tactics of ICE, which has used deadly force, including the Jan. 7th killing by an ICE agent of a 37-year-old mother Minneapolis mother Renee Nicole Good. People have been protesting nationwide over the militaristic presence of masked federal agents occupying American cities, calling for ICE to be abolished. Meanwhile, the Trump administration has defended the ICE agent who shot the Minneapolis mother even before an investigation began.
The potential purchase of the warehouse by Homeland Security raises questions about the stigma of hosting a detention center, enabling lawless immigration crackdowns, as well as municipal concerns including sewage capacity, water usage, increases in school-age children, and public safety.
Town of Chester Supervisor Brandon Holdridge said, “I am against any and all ICE presence in Chester, NY. The well documented abuses and illegal actions being carried out by this President’s Homeland Security have no place in our town. In addition, we don’t want the traffic, infrastructure, and safety concerns that would come from a project like this.”
Chester’s sewage system is a peak capacity, added Holdridge, adding “I will work with the Village of Chester and any other government entity/officials to keep any potential ICE facility our of Chester.”
County Executive Steven Neuhaus has publicly voiced disappointment over the proposed sale, saying he’d hoped the warehouse had been sold to a film studio. Selling the distribution warehouse to the federal government will remove the facility from the tax rolls. The distribution center, which has a full market value of $25 million according to the town’s assessment roll, pays more than $520,000 in taxes ($386,505 in school taxes; $134,794 in town and county taxes).
Activists, public officials and citizens vowed to continue fighting to keep the detention center out of the village and the county.
“Chester should not be complicit in policies that dehumanize immigrants or undermine basic constitutional and human rights,” said Genesis Ramos, Democratic Caucus Leader, Orange County.
