Frequently Asked Questions About the Concentration Camp Next Door
You have questions about what’s happening in Chester and how it impacts our region. I have answers.
Pictured Above: The Village of Chester Board of Trustees meeting had roughly 150 people in attendance on Monday, January 12, to speak out about the potential ICE concentration camp at 29 Elizabeth Drive.
Hey. Lots happening. So, if you don’t mind, I’m going to take some time today to answer frequently asked questions about the concentration camp that ICE is looking to open at 29 Elizabeth Drive in the Village of Chester. We’ll also talk about what comes next and how you can get involved in putting an end to this situation.
Then, over the weekend or early this coming week, I’ll have my usual 5,000- to 10,000-word article titled “The Concentration Camp Next Door” to share with you.
That’s how we do things here at The Monroe Gazette. There are a lot of new people here, so I want you all to know what to expect: a lot of reading, basically.
Plus, I owe everyone the first part of the helicopter story as a podcast, followed by part two. So expect that next. Then, in early February, we’ll explain the probable lawsuit against Letitia James regarding this bullshit
If you prefer your news in one-minute, bite-sized videos, we just started an Instagram account to do just that.
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Just a note: If you are reading this post via email, please visit MonroeGazette.com to read the entire version.
You Have Questions, I Have Answers
Q: What’s happening in Chester at 29 Elizabeth Drive?
A: The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) want to open a “processing facility” that would hold between 500 and 1,500 people in the Village of Chester (not the town).
The number fluctuates depending on whom you’re talking to. Unconfirmed documents, alleged to have been leaked from ICE (below), indicate that the number of beds could be as high as 1,500. However, sources close to the matter have told The Monroe Gazette that ICE is asking local construction companies to submit proposals for a 500-bed facility.
The short answer is that we don’t know for sure how many people ICE is looking to hold in Chester. We do know that ICE wants the facility and seems to be moving ahead as if the property belongs to them. Unconfirmed reports suggest that ICE last visited the location on Tuesday, January 13, at 9 a.m., the day after the Village Board meeting. The point of contact for the facility is listed as Craig Morse and Lyle Carlen, with the number to reach them being 202-276-7633. However, when The Monroe Gazette attempted to dial that number, it quickly disconnected.
The phone number appears in Google as being associated with TAM Investments & Management, Inc., which may be owned and operated by Tsemach Aaron Mishal. We want to caution you that this information is unconfirmed, and we are currently attempting to reach out to Mr. Mishal for comment to clarify whether or not the phone number belongs to him and his businesses.
Q: Why do you call it a concentration camp?
A: If it looks like a concentration camp and sounds like a concentration camp, it’s a concentration camp. More specifically, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is clear on what defines a concentration camp: It’s a place where people are taken against their will (check), outside the bounds of the normal legal system (check), deprived of due process (check), and subjected repeatedly to cruel and inhumane treatment (check).
For maximum impact, my hope is that advocates and those looking to take back our country from the Trump regime use the strongest, most accurate language possible. That is why I call the ICE facilities concentration camps, and you should too.
Remember also that when the Nazis first suggested concentration camps, they described them as “work camps,” many adorned with the slogan “Arbeit macht frei” or “Work will set you free.” My grandmother’s family was murdered in a concentration camp. I doubt they had much time to debate whether or not it would be more appropriate to call it a “detention center.”
Q. Who owns this property?
A: Carl Icahn’s Ichan Enterprises.
Q: HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT?!
Pictured Above: 29 Elizabeth Drive in the Village of Chester, New York: A company founded by four of my fellow Jews, Pep Boys, is about to host a concentration camp. Yup. You read that right. One wonders what the ancestors of Emanuel Rosenfeld, Maurice Strauss, W. Graham Jackson, and Moe Radavitz would think of this development. (Carl Icahn is also Jewish.)
How do I know who owns the place? Go to the Orange County Real Property Database, search for 29 Elizabeth Drive, click on it, then click on “Owner/Sales,” and you’ll see the property is owned by IEP Chester LLC. Southern Orange County is rife with shady LLCs.
When I looked at the address, I thought it was odd: 16690 Collins Ave, Sunny Isles Beach, FL 33160. Usually, our LLCs trace back to Monsey, Kiryas Joel, or 199 Lee Avenue in Brooklyn. Home to 1,400 LLCs.
So, I did what all good journalists do and started digging. I found an article stating that Carl Icahn relocated to that exact address in Florida. I then searched for connections between Carl Icahn and IEP Chester LLC using Icahn Enterprises’ Form 10-K from 2024. If you look at that Form 10-K, you’ll find IEP Chester LLC listed in Exhibit 21.1.
Also, Icahn owns Pep Boys. It’s a former Pep Boys warehouse. You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to figure this out.
We are working on contacting Andrew Teno, CEO of Icahn Enterprises, for comment about the sale of this warehouse to ICE, and whether or not Icahn Enterprises is providing any other real estate to ICE, given Carl Ichan’s connections with the first Trump Regime.
Q: So you’re like a real reporter then?
A: Just because I barely make any money from The Monroe Gazette doesn’t mean I’m not an actual journalist. I’ve been writing professionally since 2004 and had St. Martin’s publish a book of mine in 2012. I am now working on my third book, assuming something else crazy doesn’t happen. First, it was the stolen election in South Blooming Grove; now, it’s a literal concentration camp next door.
Q: Where is the concentration camp in relation to you?
A: It’s near my parents’ house. My mom named me “Brandon” because she thought, someday, that the Nazis would be back. I laughed at her when she told me that. Now she’s laughing because she can walk over and knock on their door.
Q: What are the local elected officials saying?
The Village of Chester issued a two-page statement, which you can read here. (I locked myself out of my MuckRock account, demonstrating that I too am no rocket scientist.)
The individual Chester Village Board members didn’t say much. I tried to sneak over to get a quote from Mayor Tom Bell, but a nice Village Police officer intercepted me. Mayor Bell has not replied to emails and calls seeking comment from The Monroe Gazette.
Residents of the Village of Chester can and should absolutely hound each member of the Village Board to find out whether they support ICE’s activities and presence in the community. If the answer is yes, you should take names, organize, and work to chase each of them out of office.
Sadly, the Village of Chester does not record its meetings. This is a problem throughout the Southern Orange County community, and we need a state law mandating—with funding provided by New York State—all cities, villages, and towns to broadcast all of their meetings and make them easily accessible. (Sometimes they do record the meetings, but you have to find them buried in some subfolder within a subfolder, instead of just posting them on YouTube like a normal person would.) Man, if only we had a State Senator that likes to get his face in front of a microphone who could pass such a law …
The Chester Town Supervisor, Brandon Holdridge, made multiple statements on the issue, including the following at 21:55 in the Town Board video. The two council members on the right, Democrat Tom Becker and Republican Giuseppe Cassara, have not yet stated their positions on ICE’s presence in the community and the proposed concentration camp. Bob Courtenay—who was a guest on The Monroe Gazette podcast previously—is a Republican and against the ICE facility.
County Executive Steve Neuhaus also released a video, but as we’ve covered extensively here at The Monroe Gazette, Steve Neuhaus is a compulsive liar. Our favorite example—aside from the Cigars on the Mountain photo with Joel Stern and Isaac Ekstein—occurred during that big drone scare, where Neuhaus claimed he had top-secret security clearance and friends at the Pentagon, assuring everyone he’d get to the bottom of all those drones. We submitted a FOIL request for all of Steve’s emails to the Pentagon, and it turned out there weren’t any. Oh, and then there was that time Neuhaus mentioned a man who crossed over the border while he was down there for absolutely no reason, claiming he had enough fentanyl on him to kill everyone in New York City.
So, no. I’m not posting Steve Neuhaus’s video here. Nothing that man says is true.
Neuhaus’s opponent in the November 2024 election, Mike Sussman—who probably would have won, had the Orange County Democratic Committee found a way to escape the brown paper bag someone stuck on its head—spoke at both Village and Town meetings this week, making sure to position himself as close to the microphone as possible.
(I’m teasing. I happen to like Mr. Sussman, and honestly, whether some of you trust him or not because of his history working with Clovewood’s Ziggy Brach, you’re going to need Mr. Sussman’s help before this situation with ICE is over.)
Q: What makes you say that?
A: I’m skipping ahead here. I’ll explain this more in a future post, but you should look carefully at your pocket constitution. I have one—it’s the Racehorse Publishing 2016 edition that includes the Declaration of Independence. If you have that, you can go to page 20. There, you’ll find Article 4, Section 4 of the Constitution, known as the Guarantee Clause. If you don’t have it, don’t worry. Here is the Guarantee Clause in full:
The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against invasion; and on application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic violence.
See where this is going? If not, ask Mr. Sussman. He’s a constitutional lawyer, and I think I know a town and village that might be willing to sue the federal government on behalf of its residents citing this very clause.
It’s a long shot; the Guarantee Clause is rarely, if ever, litigated, let alone discussed. But I think it’s time for a few long shots, because ICE is going to do this thing.
Q: So you’re saying the concentration camp is a done deal?
A: Yeah. In my opinion, it’s happening. Nationally, we need to talk about plans for a general strike on Election Day to ensure everyone is available to vote and that people come in large enough numbers to prevent the Trump regime from complaining about crooked elections—or worse, to prevent the Trump regime from using the Insurrection Act as an excuse not to hold elections at all.
Locally, we should discuss nonviolent and peaceful methods of protest against this facility and ICE at large. Read to the end for more on how to do that.
Q: How do you know it’s happening?
A: I read Project 2025. They literally told you they were going to do this.
They also stated that they would look to provoke people in order to invoke the Insurrection Act, which would allow the Trump regime—specifically the freakish ghoul Stephen Miller—to use the United States military to put down any protests they don’t like.
ICE needs to be abolished. Comprehensive immigration reform needs to be passed. Anyone who committed a crime either as part of, or at the directive of, the Trump regime should be investigated by Congress and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. The United States should also join the World Court and allow for Stephen Miller, Pete Hegseth, and Donald Trump to be tried for crimes against humanity.
Walking around and saying “Never again” doesn’t mean much when “again” is happening right in front of your face.
Q: So what do we do?
Well, first let me tell you what we’ve done so far.
We have submitted a FOIL (Freedom of Information Law) request to the Village of Chester for all documents concerning 29 Elizabeth Drive and all records of communication related to the property. If someone’s lying to the public, we’re going to find out. However, we need to caution you: Brian Nugent, the Chester Village Attorney, has a history of unethical and likely illegal behavior concerning FOIL requests with the Town of Monroe. We’re prepared to sue the Village of Chester at the first whiff of a Brian Nugent-generated problem. Village residents should be loudly demanding that this clown be fired. Ditto for Blooming Grove residents.
We have also submitted a FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) request to ICE/DHS for all documents and records of communication concerning 29 Elizabeth Drive and Carl Icahn’s companies. We expect ICE will give us a hard time, so we’re looking for a FOIA attorney to help us sue them the moment they engage in any Brian Nugent-esque shenanigans to obstruct access to files.
Last but not least, Orange County and ICE have a long-standing partnership, dating back to Steve Neuhaus allowing ICE to utilize a wing of the Orange County Jail to house ICE detainees. At this time, Steve Neuhaus and Orange County have not responded to The Monroe Gazette’s requests to tour the ICE facility at Orange County Jail, given that Congressman Pat Ryan and State Senator James G. Skoufis seem confused about which one of them has the right to enter the wing. (It’s Private Equity Ryan. As a Congressman, he has federal oversight responsibility—but as we’ll discuss later, Private Equity Ryan needs to be primaried and chased out of office.)
Anyway, we have a FOIL request in at Orange County, but be aware that they are dragging their feet on every FOIL request we submit. The one to remember is FOIL #P002185-092925. That’s the request asking for all emails received from @ICE.gov by the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, which now just says “waiting for legal review.” This FOIL is past due, as we were supposed to receive a response by December 23, 2025. Our attorney will be in touch with the County Attorney (the malevolent golfer, Rick Golden) to see what’s going on. I strongly suspect that Golden will also fight us on this. But if we have to sue Orange County, we will absolutely sue Orange County.
I’m doing some other stuff, but let’s get back to your question …
If you’re reading this on January 15, there are two things you can do.
First, on January 16 at 6 p.m. at Bourbon Street Bar and Grill in Monroe, New York, you can attend the first gathering of the Do Something Dems. This group is forming because, as covered by The Monroe Gazette, the Monroe and Woodbury Democratic Committees have been co-opted by real estate developers like Wayne Corts and convicted felon Tim Mitts, and filled with people who only want to do whatever PAC-money-loving corporate bootlicker State Senator Skoufis tells them to do.
The second thing you can do is send an email to icesustainability@ice.dhs.gov. I’ll explain what that is in a moment. The deadline to email that address is tomorrow, January 16, according to a page on the DHS website since 29 Elizabeth Drive is located within a 100-year floodplain. As they say, “There are three primary purposes for this notice. First, people who may be affected by activities in floodplains and those who have an interest in the protection of the natural environment should be given an opportunity to express their concerns and provide information about these areas. Second, an adequate public notice program can be an important public educational tool. The dissemination of information about floodplains can facilitate and enhance federal efforts to reduce the risks associated with the occupancy and modification of these special areas. Third, as a matter of fairness, when the federal government determines it will participate in actions taking place in floodplains, it must inform those who may be put at greater or continued risk.”
When emailing that address, you should also copy the Village Mayor at mayor@villageofchesterny.com and the Town Supervisor at bholdridge@thetownofchester.org.
What should you say? Try this:
To Whom It May Concern,
I am writing concerning the proposed use by ICE of a former Pep Boys warehouse located at 29 Elizabeth Drive in the Village of Chester, New York.
First, before touching on the environmental concerns, I want to mention that the proposed ICE facility is located virtually next door to a children’s recreational facility, making it an inappropriate location for such a facility. It is also next to railroad tracks, conjuring images of the Nazis using train cars to transport people they deemed “illegal.” For an administration concerned with “optics,” it might want to consider the proximity of the train tracks to the loading docks where human beings will be offloaded and held without due process, in clear violation of the Constitution’s 14th Amendment.
Second, the Village of Chester is over its allotted sewage capacity for Orange County Sewer District 1. This sewer district is home to an aging and failing sewage facility that was previously subject to a DEC consent decree, and whose infrastructure still regularly spews a noxious and potentially dangerous supply of hydrogen sulfide onto a children’s playground in neighboring Monroe.
OCSD1 is subject to an upgrade and an eventual new facility to meet the demand from the Village of Kiryas Joel, the Village of South Blooming Grove, and Woodbury Common. Until that project is completed—and if it is completed—there are concerns about a poorly executed, if not outright dishonest, environmental assessment process. All of the surrounding municipalities are at or over their allotted sewage capacity, which has led to multiple moratoriums on further construction within parts of the sewer district and communities dependent on its infrastructure.
There appears to be no data, no study, no research, and no environmental assessment to address how an ICE processing facility such as yours would impact this aging and decrepit sewage infrastructure, especially if you are holding up to 1,500 people there and appropriately supplying them with water and bathroom access, which you should be. Because if you weren’t, that would be a violation of the Constitution’s rule against cruel and unusual punishment (that’s the Eighth Amendment, by the way).
For these reasons, I believe this is a bad location for your concentration camp.
(Your Name Here)
There is also a press conference being held on Saturday that’s worth your attention:
Pictured Above: Back in March 2025, at Herr Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress, instead of boycotting it like someone with courage would, Democratic Congressman Pat Ryan attended and brought along MAGA-loving Orange County Executive Steve Neuhaus as his guest.
Q: What else can I do?
A: Have you called Congressman Pat Ryan? He’s pretty useless, but you should call him—frequently. This is true for all elected officials. The volume of calls is what they pay attention to. Not the individual calls and what you’re saying to them.
Q: Why do you say that? I thought Pat Ryan is a great guy. Just like Skoufis!
A: Here’s my two-part answer to this question.
Part 1: Congressman Pat Ryan does not support impeaching Pete Hegseth, ICE Barbie (DHS Head Kristi Noem), and Donald Trump. I know because I called and asked.
Congressman Pat Ryan does not support Medicare for All. I know because I called and asked.
Congressman Pat Ryan does not support overturning Citizens United through a constitutional amendment. I know because I called and asked.
Congressman Pat Ryan has a lot of shady connections and has routed considerable federal funding to two white-collar criminals in South Blooming Grove. Congressman Pat Ryan refuses to comment on the stolen election in South Blooming Grove. A crime conducted by his white-collar criminal friends.
Congressman Pat Ryan voted to take some autonomy away from Washington, D.C., to further empower the Trump administration.
Congressman Pat Ryan was one of very few Democrats to vote for the GENIUS Act, which further enriched Trump and dangerously tied our economy to cryptocurrency.
Congressman Pat Ryan supported a resolution condemning “socialism,” despite the fact that what’s being described in the actual resolution he voted for was fascism. I called and gave the nice receptionist a history lesson that they DID NOT APPRECIATE. I also warned their office that this resolution, which the congressman endorsed, could be used as a pre-text to invade Venezuela, which Trump then did.
Shall I go on?
Congressman Pat Ryan’s biggest donor is AIPAC.
One of his other largest donors is Peter Thiel’s Palantir Technologies.
He is also funded by private equity scumbags like Bain Capital, who killed Toys ‘R Us, among numerous other companies, not to mention community resources like hospitals.
Congressman Pat Ryan does not support closing the private equity loophole, because that would make his investors at Bain Capital very mad.
Congressman Pat Ryan runs around talking about how he’s a “trustbuster” and is concerned about high grocery prices, but hasn’t asked the FTC or DOJ to investigate or break up the oligopolies in the grocery store, agriculture, and meat industries. If you want to lower prices at the grocery store, that is how you do it.
Congressman Pat Ryan does not support raising the federal minimum wage. He also does not support a Universal Basic Income, which could easily be replicated using the highly successful Alaskan Permanent Fund model.
Congressman Pat Ryan does not support HR 7071, which would claw back the funding provided to ICE through the Big Beautiful Bill.
Congressman Pat Ryan does not support ending qualified immunity for ICE agents.
Congressman Pat Ryan, despite being a veteran, did not appear in the video asking our brave men and women in the military not to follow an illegal order.
Congressman Pat Ryan, despite having many Latinos in his district, did not join other New York Congressional representatives in asking Governor Hochul to pass New York for All.
Shall I go on?
Part 2: Congressman Pat Ryan is the kind of Democrat, alongside State Senator James G. Skoufis, who should be chased out of the Democratic Party. Otherwise, you’ll keep getting what you’ve received from the Democrats ever since the corporate media and McGovern sabotaged, and then lost, his presidential campaign to Nixon: The Loyal Opposition. A party of wealthy scumbags who only care about how their wealthy friends are doing, and only offer you the absolute minimum. Had Al Gore, John Kerry, Hillary Clinton, and Kamala Harris offered more than the bare minimum, they would have all won. (Remember, Gore lost Tennessee, his home state, which is rare in presidential politics. With Tennessee, Florida wouldn’t have mattered. And if you noticed that I skipped Biden, that’s because what he was doing for the economy was working, but he did an absolutely awful job of explaining to the American people what they were doing, leading to a vibecession.
Private Equity Ryan needs to be primaried. If I had money, I’d do it myself.
But someone needs to do it because this situation is not acceptable during a national emergency.
So, to use a phrase Ryan definitely heard in the military: Lead, follow, or get out of the way.
Pat Ryan is in the way.
Q: Ok. But there’s gotta be other things I can do, right?
A: Yup!
There’s another long shot here. The Village of Chester could use eminent domain for $20 million based on the grounds I mentioned involving the sewage and the proximity to Frozen Ropes. But…Brian Nugent isn’t that smart. So, you’re going to have to ask the Village, Town, and County if that’s even doable (it is), and if it is, how do you come up with $20 million? (I don’t know. It’s a lot of money. There are people with deep pockets in the Hudson Valley, but $20 million?)
In the interim, here are some simple things you can do to close this post with.
You can, and should, email Hands Off Hudson Valley / Indivisible Monroe (either name is fine) and tell them you want to participate in our Signs of Solidarity campaign. This is an opportunity, provided by Indivisible, for small businesses and other storefront organizations to put signs in their windows saying they stand with immigrant families and that immigrant families are welcome to patronize their businesses.
Nora and Carol can be emailed at: HandsOffHudsonValley@gmail.com.
You can, and should, ask your local business owners how they feel about ICE. If they oppose ICE, you can and should ask them if they would be willing to ban ICE agents from using their restrooms and ordering from them. If so, we are working on signs that can be put up in store windows telling ICE agents they are not welcome there and will not be served.
You can, and should, continue to attend Chester Village Board meetings and ask questions about what’s happening with the building and whether they will take it via eminent domain.
You can, and should, attend your local village and town meetings as well and ask each politician to clarify whether they support ICE’s activities in the area and whether they support the presence of the concentration camp in Chester. If the answer is yes to either or both those questions, you should prepare to vote them out of office.
You can, and should, talk to your friends and neighbors and explain why it’s a concentration camp and not a “detention center.”
You can and should communicate with your church, social groups, and anywhere else about how social media doesn’t reflect reality, and how there are far fewer supporters of this behavior than the platforms want you to think.
You can and should study your Constitution and be prepared to defend the most vulnerable in your community using whistles.
You can and should demand your local town, village, or city pass resolutions demanding the New York State Legislature and Governor, right now, pass the NY MELT Act and the New York For All Act.
N.Y.S. Assembly Speaker Heastie: 518-455-3791
N.Y.S. Senate Majority Leader Cousins: 518-455-2585 or 518-455-2715
Governor Hochul: 1-518-474-8390
The New York MELT Act prohibits ICE agents from conducting their activities while masked. Given that the Trump administration’s own FBI has stated the use of masks by ICE puts everyone in danger (the agent, the person being stopped, and the rest of us from imposters posing as ICE agents), this should be a no-brainer to pass.
The New York For All Act limits, or in some cases prohibits, collaboration and coordination between ICE and state agencies and municipalities. This would effectively end the arrangement ICE currently has with Orange County to use part of the Orange County Jail to house ICE detainees, bringing consistency across the state in terms of where someone could safely travel without worrying about ICE harassment if they are undocumented.
When you call these numbers for Heastie or Cousins, you can say the following:
“I am a resident of (put your town, village, or city here). The New York State Legislature reconvened on January 7. I am asking that (Speaker Heastie/Cousins) move to bring the New York For All and MELT Acts to the floor and hold a vote right now. Every day that goes by without this puts every New Yorker in danger from Trump’s Gestapo. No more excuses or delays. Demonstrate to the people who elected you and the Democrats that you will act in the best interests of all residents, not just the wealthy and the well-connected.”
Or, for Kathy Hochul:
“I am a resident of (put your town, village, or city here). The Governor has shown hesitance to advocate for and sign the New York For All Act. I will remind the Governor that as a voter, I am happy to support her primary opponent, Antonio Delgado, if she does not act immediately to call for a vote on both the New York For All and MELT Acts.
I will also remember this in November if Kathy Hochul does not publicly pledge to sign the legislation as soon as it comes to her desk. Failure to do so will demonstrate that, despite her campaign promises to work on behalf of all New Yorkers, Kathy Hochul only wants to serve her own interests and those of her wealthy donors.”
These are things you can do right now. I will share more tactics with you soon.
But I want to close with this: Let’s assume ICE is coming. Now ask yourself if you’re the kind of person who, when the Nazis came for your Jewish friends and neighbors, would speak up. And then ask yourself how this situation is any different from what’s happening to our Latino brothers and sisters.
It’s not different. And it’s time to act like it.
P.S.
IF WE KNEW THE NAMES AND ADDRESSES OF THE PEOPLE WE SHOULD WRITE TO IT WOULD BE ALOT EASIER.