Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has been accused of inventing a fake emergency to “justify” demolishing a cluster of highly secure buildings that have been designated as a National Historic Landmark.
The buildings are part of a fortified 176-acre complex that formerly housed a hospital created by Congress in 1855 to provide mental health care for the Army, Navy, and District of Columbia.
Over the past 15 years, the Department of Homeland Security has been working with the General Services Administration to transform the site, called St. Elizabeths Campus West, into DHS’s new headquarters.
Suddenly, just two days before Christmas, the GSA notified the city of Washington, D.C., that it was planning an emergency demolition of 17 historic buildings because they “constitute a present risk to life and property,” The Washington Post reported.
Specifically, the buildings, which are vacant, could provide a “tactical advantage” in the case of an active shooter on the campus, according to DHS.
“Demolition is the only permanent measure that resolves the emergency conditions,” Noem wrote in a memo outlining the supposed emergency.
The memo was accompanied by a safety assessment report dated Dec. 19 that envisioned a “malicious insider,” such as a disgruntled DHS employee or contractor, entering the secure campus and using the empty buildings as a staging ground to attack senior leadership, disrupt operations, or compromise sensitive information or infrastructure.
Preservationists, however, raised “strong objections” to the proposed demolition on the grounds that the security concerns cited in Noem’s memo had nothing to do with the buildings themselves.
In a letter to the GSA, representatives for the D.C. Preservation League wrote that no evidence of an emergency existed beyond “Secretary Noem’s unilateral declaration” of one, the Post reported.
The preservationists noted that the campus possesses “the highest security classification for a government facility,” meaning that concerns about threats “imply a fundamental flaw in the facility’s security as a whole.”
They also wrote that the buildings have been vacant for many years, and that the government had “not provided evidence of changed circumstances that would warrant ‘emergency’ demolition.”
If the buildings are accessible, it’s because GSA and DHS have failed to effectively secure them, the letter added.
Noem’s “unilateral declaration” of an emergency “bypasses the procedural safeguards designed to ensure stability, legitimacy, and fairness,” it said.
The National Capital Planning Commission and Commission of Fine Arts have signed off on demolishing four of buildings in Noem’s crosshairs, but the other 13 have not been reviewed.
By law, preservationists have three business days to respond to an emergency notification about the property. The National Trust for Historic Preservation and the D.C. Preservation League have asked to participate in a detailed on-site assessment of the structures, the Post reported.
A GSA spokesperson told the Post in a statement that the agency was “following all applicable laws and regulations” to address the security issues raised by DHS.
The Daily Beast has also reached out to the GSA and DHS for comment.
The planned demolition comes on the heels of President Donald Trump tearing down the East Wing of White House to make room for a massive new ballroom that will dwarf the executive residence where presidents and their families traditionally live.
The National Trust has sued the White House to try to block the construction. The administration still has not submitted blueprints to the National Capital Planning Commission, which by law must approve construction for most federal buildings.
