ICE activity in Orange County, N.Y., on the rise

On the morning of July 9, ICE agents made arrests in the towns of Monroe and Blooming Grove.

“ICE executed a targeted enforcement action July 9 in Monroe, Blooming Grove, and Mamaroneck, focusing on illegal aliens convicted of assault, aggravated DWI and previous illegal entries into the U.S.,” an ICE spokesperson told Straus News. “Three Illegal aliens were detained and will remain in ICE custody pending due process proceedings.”

The ICE spokesperson added that persons in the country illegally “can leave now and preserve the opportunity to come back to the U.S. the legal way and live the American dream or they will be arrested and deported without a chance to return.”

The spokesperson added: “All illegal aliens who use the CBP Home app (a free mobile tool by U.S. Customs and Border Protection used for self-deportation registration, travel documents and border services) will receive a free flight home and $2,600.”

Officials in Monroe and Blooming Grove said their municipalities were not involved nor informed by ICE about any potential arrests or activities in the area.

“The town is never made aware of those kinds of operations,” said Town of Monroe Supervisor Maureen Richardson. “We don’t have any oversight or notice about it whatsoever.”

Two weeks later, on July 23, a resident of Merriewold Lane North in Monroe provided Straus News with Ring doorbell footage he says shows a Hispanic man being stopped by two unmarked vehicles on the morning of July 9. Boxed in by the vehicles, the suspect got out of his car and ran into a nearby yard and into some woods.

The resident, who provided the footage asked to be identified only as a 23-year-old Hispanic male, said the man was found and arrested.

“This happened early in the morning and when we heard about it, we looked on our camera,” he said. “It was a male Hispanic driving and then ICE stops him and he gets out of the car and runs. We figured it was ICE because we have heard from others that they were on a nearby street.”

He has mixed feelings on the matter.

“If it is for the right reasons like a warrant or a record or something like that, I see no problem with [apprehensions by ICE],” he said. “If they are innocent people, I think it is wrong.”

Potential ICE facilities

Chester, N.Y.

In February, ICE announced it had purchased a warehouse to house federal immigration detainees at 29 Elizabeth Drive in the Village of Chester, N.Y. Days later, ICE retracted the statement, saying it was a mistake.

Shortly after the retraction, New York State Assemblyman Brian Maher’s office said the assemblyman had a virtual meeting with a “senior advisor to the director of ICE” who told him ICE decided against the Chester location after an outside vendor reviewed the location.

The 401,746-square-foot warehouse on 36 acres is owned by IEP Chester.

Roxbury, N.J.

In Roxbury Township in western Morris County, N.J., a similar story played out over the same four-day period in February, until it didn’t.

After ICE’s initial announcement that it had purchased the property at 1879 Route 46 in Roxbury, the federal immigration enforcement agency made the retraction only to switch course again and announce it had indeed purchased the property.

Like what took place in Chester when it appeared ICE had chosen to set up shop in the village, officials and residents in Roxbury voiced opposition to the plan via protest and government action.

Plans to convert the warehouse into an ICE facility are on hold while the federal government conducts an environmental review tied to a lawsuit filed by Roxbury and the State of New Jersey over water, sewage and infrastructure concerns.

According to ICE, the 474,044-square-foot warehouse on approximately 109 acres – previously owned by Dalfen Industrial – would serve as an immigration detention and processing center.

“[The facility] will be designed to accommodate 542 detainees within housing areas that will include standard dormitory pods, ADA compliant pods, and behavioral and special housing units,” ICE said in lawsuit documents.

Newburgh, N.Y.

According to News12, the federal government executed a 15-year lease on June 24 for a 60,143-square-foot property on 9.5 acres at 800 Corporate Blvd. in the Town of Newburgh.

News12 reports the lease requires “a sally port capable of accommodating government vehicles, including detainee buses and vans. The lease also calls for 24-hour government access, Level 3 federal security requirements, secured parking, an emergency generator and other specialized security improvements.... The lease covers approximately 42,000 rentable square feet and calls for occupancy beginning on or about Jan. 25, 2027.”

The Town of Newburgh unanimously passed a July 24 resolution opposing an ICE facility as did the Rules Committee of the Orange County Legislature.

As he did when the Chester news broke over the winter, Rep. Pat Ryan launched a petition against an ICE facility in Newburgh.

When asked about the facility, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told Straus News the following:

“ICE will not confirm office locations as our officers are facing a coordinated campaign of violence against them including an 8,000 percent increase in death threats against them and a 1,300 percent increase in assaults against them.”

The spokesperson continued:

“Is it really news that when a federal agency hires more personnel that they need more space? Thanks to the Big Beautiful Bill, we have an additional 12,000 ICE officers and agents on the ground across the country. That’s a 120 percent increase in our workforce.”

Commercial realtor says ICE eyed Stewart Airport

Paul Adler, a regional manager for Rand Commercial – a commercial realty company – said he was contacted last year by a broker representing the federal government “about a vacant private property we were marketing in the Stewart Airport envelope in 2025.

“They took a good, hard look at it and tried to do a test fit to see if configuration of the property worked out and I think they shifted attention to something that was built already,” Adler said. ”To me, it seemed like they had a detention/transfer center in mind to bring in detainees and then transport them for deportation via planes at the airport.”

Adler said he would prefer not to do business with Homeland Security/ICE.

“The motto of our company is ‘Building better communities’ and due to the protests about these facilities, it seems apparent this is not something that is mission congruent with the wishes of the citizens of the area,” Adler said. “The property at Stewart wasn’t my property. I represent the seller, so in my role as a broker I have a legal responsibility to share any offer with my seller. If it was my property, and I do own property, I wouldn’t entertain it.”

ICE surge?

In May, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a law barring local governments, state and local police and state and local correctional facilities “from entering into 287(g) agreements or similar agreements with the federal government that allow for state and local law enforcement personnel and facilities to be used for civil immigration enforcement purposes.”

This prompted a response from White House border czar Tom Homan.

“She took the efficiencies of the jails away in the 287(g) agreements, so it’s only math,” CNBC reported Homan as saying June 9 at the White House. “One agent can arrest one bad guy in the safety and security of the jail, which is safer for the aliens, safer for the agent, safer for the community. But [Hochul] decided to kill all that, so now we’ve got to send more agents to do the job.”

In addition to Homan’s words, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a 40-page lawsuit in June challenging that legislation and other anti-ICE measures signed into law by Hochul in May. Those measures include banning federal immigration officials from wearing masks and requiring all law enforcement officers to display their agency, name and badge.

Orange County Jail

Attempts to obtain a comment from Orange County Correctional Facility, which houses federal immigration detainees, have been unsuccessful.

As of December 2025, 176 of the 450 people housed at the jail were ICE detainees with the jail operating on a budget of about $77.5 million while receiving roughly $5.5 million in federal reimbursement for housing ICE detainees.

This June, there were 160 federal immigration detainees at the jail, up from 123 in February.

“The Sheriff’s Office has historically cooperated with all federal and state law enforcement agencies and continues to do so,” Orange County Sheriff’s Office Public Information Officer Samantha Pascal said back in January, prior to the recent legislation.

Across the border in New Jersey, the Sussex County Jail closed several years ago, sending inmates to the Morris County Correctional Facility. Morris County does not house ICE detainees, according to Warden Anthony P. Lotz.