Nearly 40% of Orange County jail’s inmates are ICE detainees

Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees make up a significant portion of the inmate population at the Orange County Jail, while local officials across New York and New Jersey push back against proposals for new federal detention facilities.

As of December 2025, 176 of the 450 people housed at the jail were ICE detainees. The jail operates on a budget of about $77.5 million and receives roughly $5.5 million in federal reimbursement for housing ICE detainees.

“The Sheriff’s Office has historically cooperated with all federal and state law enforcement agencies and continues to do so,” said Samantha Pascal, public information officer for the Orange County Sheriff’s Office.

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.

Jonathan McMeen, an assistant prosecutor in the Sussex County Prosecutor’s Office, said there are no ICE facilities in the county.

“They are not prosecuted for immigration violations in Sussex as this is a federal violation and there are no federal courts in Sussex,” said McMeen.

A change in approach

A northwest New Jersey resident who works for Homeland Security Investigations said immigration enforcement has shifted over time.

“On the Homeland Security Investigations side, we are able to use our immigration and customs authority to advance criminal investigations,” said the employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “Under [President] Biden, we weren’t allowed to do anything immigration related, even if it was to advance an investigation.”

Passaic County officials did not respond to inquiries, but the Delaney Hall Detention Facility in Newark continues to operate as a large immigrant detention center run by GEO Group, a federal contractor.

Proposed ICE centers in New York and New Jersey

Local officials from both major political parties are criticizing a federal government proposal to open an ICE processing facility in the Orange County village of Chester and in the Morris County township of Roxbury. The facilities, according to an article in The Washington Post last month, would be part of a larger plan to house 80,000 individuals in warehouses across the country.

A Jan. 8 notice from the Department of Homeland Security says ICE is proposing to purchase and rehabilitate a warehouse at 29 Elizabeth Drive in Chester, with changes including internal modifications, fencing updates, a small guard building and an outdoor recreation area on a 35.9-acre site.

County Executive Steve Neuhaus, a Republican and former Town of Chester supervisor, opposes the plan.

“The federal government is hunting people down ... and we owe it to ourselves to come up with a better solution than to round them up as cattle in a temporary center,” Neuhaus told News12. He said he would prefer the site be developed as a movie studio.

Rep. Pat Ryan, a Democrat, called the proposal “shameful” and “un-American.”

Chester Town Supervisor Brandon Holdridge said, “ICE has no place in Chester, the Hudson Valley, New York, or the country at this point.”

But some residents support the facility, whether for the revenue it would generate or because they see it as necessary. “I am for it because I want the criminals here illegally [to be] arrested, processed and sent back to where they came from. I don’t think this is a complicated or controversial take,” said Chester resident Fred Stanton.

Chester Mayor John Bell told residents at a village board meeting that the federal government has not contacted the village about the proposal and that no local action is being considered.

Where the impact will be felt

It is likely that any local decisions regarding the proposed ICE facility would be made by village officials because the Pep Boys property is located within the Village of Chester.

But the impact would not be limited to the village.

In a posting to Facebook last week, Holdridge, the town supervisor, wrote:

“The current (and vacant) Pep Boys warehouse paid a little over $520,000 in taxes split between the Fire District, School District, Library District, Ambulance District, Village of Chester, Town of Chester and Orange County in 2026. All of that tax revenue disappears if the federal government takes the building. That’s a fact, not a scare-tactic. That makes it so any resident of Chester will have to make up the difference with their own tax dollars unless those districts/municipalities make an equal cut in their operating budgets.

“Chester residents will also be footing the bill for the necessary police presence and overtime pay at the inevitable rallies, protests, counter-protests and other major disruptions to everyday life.”

Holdridge said the vacant property is owned by Carl Icahn, a political donor of President Trump.

“I also learned just recently that ICE published a Notice of Activity in a 100-Year Floodplain in Chester, N.Y.,” the supervisor added. “It basically states how and why ICE would like to purchase and convert the property for its operations.”

Repeated calls and emails to ICE and the Department of Homeland Security seeking comment were not returned.