The Hudson Valley has been here before. Six months ago, this community rallied with one voice against a proposed ICE detention center in a Chester warehouse. That fight drew thousands of residents, more than 25,000 petition signatures, and bipartisan opposition from local leaders across the political spectrum. The message was unmistakable: this region does not want to become a hub for mass immigration detention.

Now, it appears the federal government didn’t get that message — or worse, ignored it.

Reports that the U.S. General Services Administration has awarded a lease at 800 Corporate Boulevard in the Town of Newburgh to a Texas-based developer with prior DHS contracts should alarm every resident of this community. Public documents describing requirements for “a dedicated sally port/garage” for “secure access into the building for deliveries by Government vehicles, including detainee buses and vans” are not the language of a routine office lease. They are the language of a detention facility.

Congressman Pat Ryan is right to demand answers. So is Town Supervisor Gil Piaquadio, who learned of this potential lease only days ago and had no advance contact from DHS or ICE — despite the Town of Newburgh having formally opposed exactly this kind of facility back in February. That silence from federal officials is not an oversight. It is a pattern.

We saw this same playbook in Chester: a warehouse quietly identified, a lease process advanced with no local notification, and community leaders left to learn about federal plans through media reports rather than official channels. It appears to have been planned, and planned without the people who will live near it.

That is unacceptable, regardless of one’s views on immigration enforcement policy. Communities have a right to know when a federal detention operation may be moving in next door. They have a right to weigh in on zoning, emergency services, traffic, and public safety implications before contracts are signed, not after.

The Town of Newburgh has said it will pursue all available legal options to stop this facility, building on the resolution it adopted in February alongside Orange County and other municipalities. That is the right posture. Whether the ultimate outcome mirrors Chester’s — where sustained public pressure helped derail the proposal — will depend on how forcefully and quickly this community responds now, while the lease question is still unresolved rather than after construction begins.

Border Czar Tom Homan’s promise of an ICE “surge” in New York makes this moment more urgent, not less. If federal officials believe Newburgh will be quieter than Chester, they should reconsider. This community has shown it will not be.

We urge the GSA and DHS to provide immediate, full transparency about the intended use of the Corporate Boulevard site. Residents, elected officials, and this the community will be watching closely — and asking the same question already posed: What, exactly, is being built in our backyard, and why weren’t we told?