Jackie Auringer Opposes Proposed ICE Facility in Newburgh, Blasts Albany Policy That Helped Create the Crisis

Kingston, NY - July 6, 2026 - Jackie Auringer, Republican candidate for Congress in New York's 18th Congressional District, today announced her opposition to any new ICE detention or staging facility in the Town of Newburgh, while sharply criticizing Albany Democrats for passing what she called an "inhumane and politically driven" policy that exacerbates the needs for these types of facilities.

"Albany Democrats did not make immigration enforcement more humane, they made it more chaotic," Auringer said. "They passed laws that defy federal immigration law and block cooperation with federal immigration enforcement which does nothing to reduce the need to process illegal immigrants. It only pushes Washington toward more costly options, away from existing local capacity, and into a system that makes life harder for those being detained."

According to recent reports, the federal government is pursuing a 15-year, $35.5 million lease for a building at 800 Corporate Boulevard in the Newburgh Commerce Park, near New York Stewart International Airport. Local officials have raised concerns that the site could be used for ICE detainees, citing reported specifications including a sally port for buses and vans, secure parking, and small-arms storage.

Auringer said the proposal shows the consequences of Albany's recent budget measure limiting cooperation between local law enforcement and ICE, including barring local jails from holding individuals on behalf of federal immigration authorities.

"When Albany blocks the use of existing, professional, well-run local facilities, like our county jails, it should surprise no one when the federal government starts looking for alternatives," Auringer said. "That is not compassion or good government, it is political posturing with real consequences for local communities."

Auringer called on ICE and the Department of Homeland Security to disclose the intended use of the Newburgh site, including whether it would be used for detention, staging, transportation, or processing, whether families or children could be held there, what contractors would be involved, and what security measures are planned.

"Let me be clear: facilities like this should not be sited without meaningful local input," Auringer said. "The people of Newburgh and the Hudson Valley deserve answers before Washington moves forward with anything."

Auringer said, New York Democrats wrongly treat cooperation with local law enforcement as the problem, when in reality our local jails are regulated, accountable, and staffed by trained professionals. Cutting off that cooperation does not make the system more humane. It pushes detainees to out-of-state warehouse facilities, farther from family, friends, and legal counsel.

"Our local jails are not warehouses," Auringer said. "They are professional facilities with trained officers, medical care, supervision, procedures, and public accountability. If someone must be held temporarily in government custody, they should be held in a facility designed to do that safely and humanely, where they can access their attorney and the support of their family, not in a facility in some other part of the country that may not have our high standards."

Auringer concluded that the state's approach allows politicians to posture while weakening the very oversight they claim to support.

"Posturing by Pat Ryan and his friends in Albany did not protect anyone," Auringer said. "They passed feel-good laws that made the system less humane and less accountable in practice. Instead of allowing local jails to do what they are equipped to do, they created more pressure for Washington to look at private contractors and improvised staging centers. Now our communities may be left to deal with the consequences of a policy that made sense as a headline in Albany but blocked a local system that was already working. Its political theater with real human consequences."