Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is making an emergency request to demolish more than a dozen historic buildings in Washington, D.C., citing a “risk to life and property” that she claims endangers federal agents.
The proposal, first reported by The Washington Post, would destroy 17 buildings at St. Elizabeths West Campus, drawing outrage and opposition from preservationists who are already battling Donald Trump’s administration over the destruction of the White House to make way for the president’s ballroom.
The federal government wants to redevelop the 176-acre campus to build more than 5 million square feet of office space for a rapidly expanding Homeland Security, along with enough parking space for 14,000 employees, according to the General Services Administration.
In a letter to the agency seen by The Independent, preservationist groups raised “strong objections” to the proposed demolition of the properties, some of which are more than 100 years old, arguing that there is no such evidence of an “emergency” beyond Noem’s “unilateral declaration” of one.
“A unilateral declaration like this is problematic because it bypasses the procedural safeguards designed to ensure stability, legitimacy and fairness,” according to a letter from National Trust for Historic Preservation general counsel Elizabeth Merritt and DC Preservation League director Rebecca Miller.
DHS has “the highest security classification for a government facility,” and potential threats “imply a fundamental flaw in the facility’s security as a whole,” not the vacant buildings, they argued.
Four of the 17 buildings that DHS wants to raze have been approved for demolition by the National Capital Planning Commission and the Commission of Fine Arts, according to Miller.
“This is about safety,” DHS assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement to The Independent.
“DHS security and safety assessments have determined that these dilapidated, vacant buildings on the DHS campus pose unacceptable safety, security, and emergency-response risks,” she added.
The campus was first established by Congress in 1855 at a site known as the “Government Hospital for the Insane,” according to the GSA.
It has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1979. It was recognized as a National Historic Landmark in 1990.
The Department of Health and Human Services listed the campus as “excess property” in 2001.
In a recent security assessment, DHS officials claim vacant buildings on the campus could be “exploited by malicious insiders who possess legitimate access, familiarity with the campus, or detailed knowledge of security procedures.”
The report suggests those “insiders” could be employees and federal contractors who could abuse their access “to plan, stage, or execute harmful activities.”
That could include targeting officials and the “disruption of essential operations and compromise of sensitive information or infrastructure,” the report said.
Several buildings “cannot be cleared by law enforcement or first responders, creating security blind spots adjacent to senior leadership and critical operations,” McLaughlin told The Independent. “Demolition is the only permanent corrective action that eliminates these.”
Preservationists argue that DHS has not provided any evidence to back up those claims that would require “emergency” demolitions.
The proposed demolitions follow Trump’s destruction of the East Wing of the White House to construct a ballroom, a project that has ballooned to $400 million, with allegedly no taxpayer burden.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation sued the Trump administration earlier this month to block the project until it at least receives congressional approval, a comprehensive design review, environmental assessment and public comment.
“No president is legally allowed to tear down portions of the White House without any review whatsoever — not President Trump, not President Biden, and not anyone else,” the federal lawsuit says. “And no president is legally allowed to construct a ballroom on public property without giving the public the opportunity to weigh in.”
Trump told reporters Monday that he wants future presidential inaugurations hosted there.
“I’m doing a magnificent, big, beautiful ballroom that the country has wanted, the White House has wanted for 150 years,” Trump said from his Mar-a-Lago property in Florida. “It’s bigger than I told you … after realizing we’re going to do the inauguration in that building. It’s got all bulletproof glass … They call it drone-free roof. Drones won’t touch it.”
