Customs office bid roils Burlington
By Eric Moskowitz
The Boston Globe, November 27, 2007

Burlington — After dozens of residents denounced the federal government’s plan to relocate its regional immigration headquarters here, the Board of Selectmen voted last night to call a special Town Meeting to consider ways to fight the move.

The Department of Homeland Security hopes to open by Jan. 1 a 40,000-square-foot headquarters for Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Detention and Removal Operations, which processes people accused of violating immigration laws and identified for possible deportation. The project is nearly complete. The Immigration Enforcement agency needs to obtain a certificate of occupancy from the town.

After a forum with federal officials that drew about 150 people last night, selectmen responded to calls for action by voting unanimously to plan a special Town Meeting session. The selectmen will set the date of the session Monday. Officials did not know what the warrant would look like, but it could include a request for legal fees to fight the project, or for a detailed explanation of how it was allowed to proceed.

The Customs plan has been developing for more than a year, but many residents and local officials learned about it only recently, prompting outcry at meetings.

Only the building inspector, John Clancy, reviewed the full plans when they were submitted; he determined that headquarters would principally be an office use, making the ‘holding rooms’ an accessory use that did not need review by a town board. That meant the Planning Board reviewed only minor engineering changes to the exterior and grounds.

Federal officials said last night they would probably apply for a certificate of occupancy shortly. The permit would need to be approved by Clancy, who has stood by his interpretation of the bylaws.

Town counsel John Giorgio said he believed the building inspector properly interpreted town bylaws, and he advised townspeople against trying to influence Clancy’s decision.

Federal officials last night tried to ease concerns about the center, which they said would be an administrative office that would not hold detainees overnight. But that did little to appease those who criticized the proposal, said they felt deceived by federal officials, and expressed misgivings about the location - between the Burlington Mall and the Lahey Clinic.

At a selectmen’s meeting that immediately followed the forum, several residents called on the board to try to stop the project.

‘I think I speak for most people here that we don’t want this facility in our town,’ Mark Casey said, drawing applause. ‘I just hope you’ll do the right thing.’

Bruce E. Chadbourne, New England field office director for the Immigration Enforcement agency, said the office would employ about 120 law-enforcement agents and staff and would process about a dozen alleged illegal immigrants a day before they are transported to county jails to await the conclusion of their cases.
http://www.oneoldvet.com/?page_id=3827#2
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articl ... urlington/