Hagerstown Rapid Response here — just wanted to flag two totally normal, nothing-to-see-here developments we broke yesterday:
1) Trump & JD Vance invited to tour the proposed ICE detention warehouse
You know, your standard local government move: “We’re not coordinating with DHS” publicly… while privately rolling out the red carpet for a potential presidential photo op inside an 825,000 square foot industrial warehouse, which is being converted into an ICE detention site.
Ethan Wechtaluk of Hagerstown Rapid Response filed a Maryland Public Information Act request seeking all communications between Washington County officials and the federal government related to the DHS-owned warehouse in Williamsport, covering the period from January 2025 through February 14, 2026. Read all about it and see all the documents in our latest Substack post.
As you all know, Washington County officials have repeatedly claimed they’ve had little to no communication with DHS about this project. Through Maryland Public Information Act (MPIA) requests, we found that’s…not exactly true.
In fact, it includes coordinating visits and extending VIP invitations — including to Donald Trump and JD Vance for what appears to be a pretty fancy tour of the site.
2) Commissioners cut the mic, removed, and trespassed the local NAACP president during public comment
At a public meeting. During the public comment section.
Because apparently the new transparency strategy is: if you can’t answer questions, just kick out the people asking them. Washington County NAACP President Taj Smith raised the issue that the county will be losing millions of dollars in tax revenue since the federal government has purchased the Hagerstown area warehouse and does not pay property taxes. Watch the full video on our Substack.
So in summary:
- Refuse to answer constituent questions for months ✅
- Deny coordination ✅
- Invite national politicians ✅
- Silence local civil rights leaders ✅
- Wonder why constituents are upset ✅
Read the full blog post on our new Substack!