ICE seeking new office space near College Park

Razak Diallo
The intersection of Baltimore Avenue and Jefferson Street in Hyattsville, Maryland (Razak Diallo/The Black Explosion)

Immigrations and Customs Enforcement may be seeking a new office space near College Park.

The Washington Post reported in September that ICE tasked the General Services Administration—the federal government’s property manager—to hunt down 300 office sites nationwide to accommodate the influx of new employees. 

According to the Washington Business Journal, the location would be home to the largest legal arm of the Department of Homeland Security, ICE’s Office of the Principal Legal Advisor. The office’s primary purpose is to prosecute immigration removal cases, but it also legally advises the agency.

The exact language of the proposal–released last Friday–is that the space will house “administrative operations in support of law enforcement.” It goes on to define the search area: within 5 miles of the city limits of Hyattsville. The proposal also specifies Prince George’s County, refusing sites in the District or Montgomery County.

Offers are due Friday.

But this wouldn’t be the first time ICE made Hyattsville its home. The current field office for the Principal Legal Advisor is in a suite at 6505 Belcrest Road, practically within University Town Center and just outside the Mall at Prince George’s. 

Despite this, the GSA is proposing a significantly larger space than a suite in a shared building. It is unknown whether ICE will keep their current office in addition to the new, proposed office. 

According to the lease proposal, the GSA is seeking office space between 3,750 and 5,001 square feet (around half the size of STAMP Student Union’s Grand Ballroom) with minimum security (CCTV) that can hold 20-35 private offices, a conference room and a dedicated server room. The GSA would like the space to be fully furnished, modern, high-quality and “suitable for professional use.”

The GSA is also particular about the occupant’s neighbors, refusing to consider spaces that “agencies or tenants whose clientele or operations conflict with law enforcement functions.”

It’s still unclear what exactly this will mean for the region. Increased legal presence in this form is distinct from ICE’s other branch, Enforcement and Removal Operations. Still, according to censusreporter.org, well over a third of Hyattsville residents are foreign-born. This doesn’t even consider the wider area, which includes immigrant communities from Langley Park to parts of Lanham.

Approximately within the radius was where Kilmar Abrego Garcia called home, Beltsville, before being detained by ICE in March. The county has seen many other cases that haven’t received as much media attention as well.