More than 250 people gathered Monday afternoon outside an office building in New Windsor to protest the presence of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the Hudson Valley, marking the latest in a series of regional demonstrations opposing the agency’s expanding operations in Orange County.
Organizers said the rally was prompted by revelations that ICE has been operating out of the New Windsor office for several months without public notice. Protesters also pointed to ICE’s ongoing relationship with the Orange County Jail and recent plans to develop a large-scale detention facility in the Village of Chester as evidence of a broader expansion in the region.
The Chester proposal involves the former 400,000-square-foot Pep Boys distribution center, which has been shuttered since 2024. ICE purchased the property and intends to convert it into a processing facility, where detainees would be held temporarily before being transferred to one of seven large warehouse-style detention centers planned across the country. Those facilities, according to organizers, would each hold between 5,000 and 10,000 people and are slated for locations in Stafford, Virginia; Hutchins and Baytown, Texas; Hammond, Louisiana; Glendale, Arizona; Social Circle, Georgia; and Kansas City, Missouri.
Demonstrators in New Windsor carried signs calling for ICE to leave the Hudson Valley and urged elected officials at the local, state, and federal levels to end cooperation with the agency. Speakers criticized what they described as secretive operations and condemned ICE’s broader record of detention and deportation.
Photo: Jonathan Hyman 
Photo: Jonathan Hyman 
Photo: Jonathan Hyman 
Photo: Jonathan Hyman 
Photo: Jonathan Hyman 
Photo: Jonathan Hyman 
Photo: Jonathan Hyman 
Photo: Jonathan Hyman 
Photo: Jonathan Hyman 
Photo: Jonathan Hyman 
Photo: Jonathan Hyman 
Photo: Jonathan Hyman 
Photo: Jonathan Hyman 
Photo: Jonathan Hyman 
Photo: Jonathan Hyman
“Working class people demand healthcare, housing, and education, not detention and deportation,” says Daniel Atonna, a City of Poughkeepsie councilmember and member of the Mid-Hudson Valley Democratic Socialists of America. “No secret ICE offices in New Windsor, Poughkeepsie, or anywhere.”
Giselle Martinez, a City of Newburgh councilmember and MHVDSA member, linked the New Windsor office to the proposed Chester detention center, saying both developments signal a direction residents do not support. “Our community does not want ICE here in the Hudson Valley or anywhere,” Martinez says, adding that opposition spans party lines among elected officials.
Vanessa Cid, co-chair of MHVDSA’s Immigrant Solidarity Working Group, calls on residents to pressure lawmakers to pass state legislation limiting cooperation with immigration enforcement, including the New York for All Act and the Dignity Not Detention Act. “There is no reason for ICE to be operating in the Hudson Valley secretly or anywhere around New York State,” Cid says.
Organizers described Monday’s rally as part of a growing regional movement and say additional actions are planned as decisions around the Chester facility move forward.
Losers. People don’t want criminals picked up? Odd. Most of us voted for this. Most of those protesters are not even from the Hudson Valley. The Dems Socialist pit out an email. All their chapters are going to come here and start trouble. If the politicians work with Trump there won’t be chaos but they are inviting it by doxxing all this info out. Like in what world does that make sense. Like dies Pat Ryan know how police work to catch criminals???? They don’t announce it genius. Lol who voted for this dude?
*put out
*like does