Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Federal authorities must stop construction of an immigration detention center in Maryland, a judge said on March 11.

U.S. District Judge Brendan Hurson imposed a temporary restraining order halting construction of the center near Williamsport in Washington County.

Maryland officials recently sued the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) over the facility, alleging authorities did not perform required steps under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), such as an environmental review.

“The State has shown that Defendants likely failed to comply with their obligations under NEPA,” Hurson said. “Defendants do not appear to have taken a ‘hard look’ at the potential environmental consequences of their plans for the Williamsport Warehouse.”

Hurson said that there is no evidence that authorities completed an environmental impact statement or environmental assessment, as is generally required under federal law. He said that the “slight inconvenience of a delay in construction” was outweighed by “ongoing and possible future irreparable harms” that the state faced absent a restraining order.

DHS did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.

The temporary restraining order is in place for two weeks.

Such orders can be rescinded by judges, allowed to expire, or upgraded to preliminary injunctions or blocks that remain in place as litigation proceeds.

DHS purchased a 54-acre warehouse in Williamsport for $102 million in January and was set to begin converting it into an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility on March 6 as the government ramps up efforts on immigration enforcement, including deportations.

Planned work included installing perimeter fencing, installing exterior lighting, and modifying the sanitation system, according to a government notice.

The conversion was described in a complaint from Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown as likely to harm Maryland’s natural resources and environment, including local waterways and endangered species.

He also said that authorities did not conduct an environmental review before carrying out construction and had provided little information about their plans to the state.

DHS has not yet filed any documents in the case.

“Today a federal court handed Maryland a critical victory, stopping construction that threatened our waterways, endangered species, and communities before irreversible harm could be done,” Brown said in a March 11 statement.

“Though temporary, this ruling stops the construction of this massive immigration detention center while our lawsuit continues to play out in court. We will not let DHS and ICE rush through the proper legal process in their haste to ramp up deportations. We will keep fighting to make sure the law is followed and Marylanders are protected.”

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