FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 16, 2026
Contact: Cindy-Lee Dorcely, President – naacpmiddletown@gmail.com
NAACP Middletown Branch stands in opposition to proposed ICE Warehouse in Chester, NY
MIDDLETOWN, NY – The NAACP Middletown Branch adds its voice to the massive public outcry against the proposal to add an ICE processing facility in the Village of Chester. As first reported in the Washington Post, DHS is proposing to convert a former Pep Boys Warehouse into a processing facility where people abducted by ICE would be held. Todd Lyons, director of ICE, has stated that his vision is “[Amazon] Prime, but with human beings.”
The branch stands in unwavering and unequivocal opposition to this project, and to any proposal to expand ICE in Orange County or anywhere else in the country. We intend to pursue any and all actions within the boundaries of the law to block this proposal, and call on our local elected officials and residents to do the same.
It is clear to anyone observing that DHS and ICE have been corrupted into lawless, authoritarian secret police advancing a white supremacist vision and loyal not to the United States or its people, but only to Donald Trump. The heads of these agencies have demonstrated gross incompetence and pathological dishonesty, and the agents they employ are unvetted and untrained and function more as a street gang or militia than a law enforcement agency.
“The NAACP has always stood for the rights and dignity of immigrants,” said NAACP Middletown Branch President Cindy-Lee Dorcely. “Remember that some of the earliest immigrants to North America were Africans, brought here against their will and traded like merchandise. For the head of ICE to say he aspires to treat human beings like Amazon packages shows how the people at the top of our present government wish to return to the brutality and depravity of slavery.”
The Middletown Branch stands with the NAACP New York State Conference, New York for All Coalition, and hundreds of organizations, faith leaders, advocates, and community members across the state in support of the New York for All Act (S986/A5686). Our endorsement reflects our commitment to a New York that defends civil rights, protects vulnerable communities, and rejects policies rooted in fear and xenophobia.
ICE’s presence in communities only causes stress, trauma, and harm. While the recent murders of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis have rightly drawn public attention, there have been at least 30 shootings by ICE agents since Donald Trump was sworn in less than a year ago, and eight people killed. One of those people, Keith Porter, was a 43-year-old Black father of two, a US citizen who was killed for celebrating the New Year the same way thousands of other people in his community do.
This does not even mention the dozens of people who have died in ICE custody in the last year. Adding an ICE facility to Orange County—which already has an ICE detention facility at Orange County Jail in Goshen—will only put our residents in danger.
“ICE needs to be reined in, not expanded,” said President Dorcely, “and the leaders and agents who have broken the law—up to and including cold-blooded murder—need to be prosecuted and held accountable. There is no place in our community for the white supremacist terror ICE represents, and we will do everything in our power to keep them out.”
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The NAACP Middletown Branch serves western Orange County, New York. Our mission is to achieve equity, political rights, and social inclusion by advancing policies and practices that expand human and civil rights, eliminate discrimination, and accelerate the well-being and economic security of Black people and all persons of color.
