UPDATE - February 13, 2026
Refined and reformatted the original community action guide for improved readability and accessibility.
Archived at: https://archive.org/details/chester_advocacy_refined
Key improvements:
Restructured content with clear hierarchical sections for easier navigation
Enhanced the endangered species section with dedicated explanations for each of the three federally protected species (Bog Turtle, Indiana Bat, Northern Long-Eared Bat)
Reformatted all 13 government agency contacts with consistent formatting, clear authority statements, and visually distinct message script boxes
Added “Why This Matters” and “Your Voice Matters” closing sections to reinforce urgency
Improved visual design with professional formatting while maintaining the urgent activist tone
Made the ICE Scraper Campaign instructions clearer and more actionable
This version maintains all original content and contact information while making it significantly easier for community members to quickly find the information they need and take immediate action.
The Humanitarian Nightmare: NO SEWER
Let us talk about the absolute absurdity of this plan. Chester is a small municipality. The town has explicitly stated there is NO SEWER capacity for a facility of this massive scale.
ICE wants to pack thousands of human beings into a dormant tire warehouse. Doing this without the municipal wastewater capacity to handle it is a lethal public health disaster waiting to happen. They are trying to bypass local zoning and warehouse human beings in a failing industrial site.
The Ecological Catastrophe: The Endangered Species Kill Off
If the human rights violations do not stop them, maybe the environmental destruction will. The warehouse sits directly in a 100 year floodplain. Converting this industrial property into a detention center will annihilate protected wetlands.
Worse, the massive construction and toxic runoff will actively kill off three endangered species native to the region. This is what we stand to lose:
1. The Bog Turtle
This is one of North America’s smallest turtles, and it relies on the exact type of shallow, spring fed wetlands that surround the Chester area. Paving over their habitat is a death sentence.
2. The Indiana Bat
These bats use the mature forested areas and wetland meadows for feeding and roosting. Wiping out the floodplain will destroy the critical insect populations they need to survive.
3. The Northern Long Eared Bat
Another heavily protected species that relies on the undisturbed tree canopy supported by the local wetlands.
They are willing to bulldoze federal environmental law and drive native anima extinction just to build another cage.
