DC residents fight back against $300M ICE facility

DHS wants to build a $300 million new ICE facility in a predominantly Black, low-income neighborhood in Washington, DC. But DC residents are fighting back.

Organizers are demanding contractors and elected officials walk away from the plan, and are calling for the redirection of federal resources from Trump’s anti-immigrant offensive to fund critical community services in the neglected neighborhood instead.

Plans were announced under the Biden administration in 2023 to relocate and consolidate ICE headquarters to the St. Elizabeths West Campus in Southeast DC, the site of a former state mental hospital. Community advocates have blasted the lack of transparency and community input, saying its proximity to a preschool, a hospital and a shelter for the unhoused make it unsuitable for the purpose.

St. Elizabeths is also a historical landmark for mental health reform, as the hospital was an early adopter of the "moral treatment" movement in the 19th century.