(WHTM) — U.S. Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) thanked the Department of Homeland Security on Monday for backing out of plans to use two Pennsylvania warehouses as detention centers.
The department purchased the former Big Lots distribution center in Schuylkill County and a warehouse in Berks County in February, with plans to retrofit them for use as Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities. However, DHS said last week it would instead use existing detention space.
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The projects faced immediate pushback from local and state officials when announced. They expressed concerns the detention centers, which were expected to hold thousands of people, would overwhelm emergency services and sewage systems in the communities. Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) even threatened to withhold permits for the facilities.
Fetterman wrote a letter at the time to then-DHS Secretary Kristi Noem in which he said the facilities would “do significant damage” to local taxes and strain infrastructure. He went as far as to say they would “set back decades-long efforts to boost economic development.”
In a new statement on Monday, Fetterman said DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin “recognized the negative impacts these facilities would have in Pennsylvania.”
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The senator, a rare Democratic proponent of President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda, said he remains committed to working with the administration on addressing what he called a “broken immigration system.”
DHS has not yet shared what it will do with the warehouses, which it purchased for a combined $207 million. The New York Times reported that the department plans to sell or give away the warehouses along with five others across the country.
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