READING, Pa. – The Berks County Commissioners on Thursday briefly commented on the recent reports that state the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement may no longer move forward with detention centers in Upper Bern Township, Berks County and Tremont Township, Schuylkill County.

Commissioner Dante Santoni, Jr. called the reports good news for the county.

“I know that many people were involved in that, and I want to thank the governor’s office for its help and support,” Santoni said. “And I also want to thank the residents of this community, of this country, especially of Upper Bern and around that area, because a lot of people spoke. There were peaceful protests, a lot of rallies, and people wrote their elected officials.”

“I think that when people get a little cynical about how important it is to get involved in their communities, they sort of think all those politicians don’t listen to us,” Santoni said. “But I think this was an example of how that worked. I think there’s still some information that we need to get with what’s going to happen moving forward, but I think the fact that those facilities are not going to be utilized by the ICE and by the Department of Homeland Security is a positive thing for our community.”

Commissioner Christian Y. Leinbach said he did reach out to Republican Congressman Dan Meuser when he first heard the report last year.

“He sent me the same article I had read (from the New York Times) and said that he was reaching out to DHS and that when he had information from them, he would share it with us,” Leinbach said.

“I’ve not heard anything and to best of my knowledge no one from DHS or ICE has reached out to anyone here in the county government. So, I just leave it at that.”

The commissioners also heard two public comments regarding the news.

Crystal Kowalski, of Wyomissing, thanked the commissioners for their part in stopping the DHS warehouses.

“These warehouses were defeated because people throughout our two communities, with the support of people from across the state and across the country, worked tirelessly to defeat them,” Kowalski said.

“Our united work helped us to avoid having too massive detention camps in our area. We should be proud of this, but there’s more work to be done. We are not free of our responsibilities. Berks County must end its voluntary cooperation with ICE and DHS by voluntarily contacting ICE and holding people past their court ordered release date and time. We are acting as a supply pipeline, and people are flowing through that pipeline that leads directly to detention camps just like the ones we fought so hard to defeat.”

Craig Schaffer, of Cumru Township, said he is happy with the news that the current administration is abandoning the detention facilities. 

“This comes at a loss of $800,000 in local tax revenue because the federal government owns the property and is tax exempt,” Shaffer said. “The reason for abandoning the project was the vehement opposition from your constituents in our community. My message to the commissioners is not to underestimate the vindictiveness of this administration. The community opposed this project, and the administration will hurt the community by sitting on this property, causing the loss of local tax revenue indefinitely.”

In other business, the commissioners voted to table a resolution that would have approved the Human Services Block Grant for the fiscal year 2026-2027 for the Mental Health Developmental Disabilities program.

Leinbach advised tabling the resolution until all the public hearings have been conducted.

Pamela Seaman, administrator of mental health and development disabilities programs for the county, said there is another public hearing scheduled for 8:30 a.m. on Monday at Alvernia University.

Seaman said the grant has several different allocations, which include behavioral health services, intellectual disabilities-based services, homeless assistance, human services development, and drug and alcohol services.