Lehigh County exec says he’s evicting ICE from Allentown office

Lehigh County Executive Josh Siegel said he is evicting an Immigration and Customs Enforcement unit from a county-owned building where it has occupied an office for about three years but never paid rent.

The announcement came shortly after Mark Pinsley, the county’s financial watchdog, held a news conference saying Homeland Security Investigations, a unit of ICE, owes more than $115,000 in rent.

“We’re going to deport ICE,” Pinsley said at the news conference Tuesday at the Lehigh County Government Center.

In a statement, Siegel said the department’s failure to pay rent, combined with its “national reputation for recklessness, chaos, and public disorder,” warrants the move. “We will not accept their blood money,” he said.

According to Pinsley, the county entered an agreement with Homeland Security Investigations in November 2022 for an office in the county-owned Hamilton Financial Center at 840 W. Hamilton St.

While HSI is an arm of ICE, it works with local district attorneys and police agencies on investigations into human trafficking, drug smuggling, financial fraud and other crimes. Immigration arrests are typically handled by the agency’s Enforcement and Removal Operations members, though HSI agents sometimes cooperate in those activities.

“Reports that nearly 90 percent of DHS agents have been reassigned to deportation operations, combined with the agency’s ongoing disregard for due process and the rule of law, threaten public trust in both local law enforcement and government,” Siegel said.

Pinsley said an ICE agency using the office reflects poorly on the county. He suggested the recent events in Minnesota — where ICE has been conducting massive immigration sweeps and battling protesters in the wake of an agent’s officer’s fatal shooting of a woman — could happen here.

“There were no pepper balls flying across Hamilton Street on my way to work today but there’s no guarantee there won’t be tomorrow,” Pinsley said.

According to a memo from Pinsley to Siegel, the agreement to lease the office was signed by the HSI’s special agent in charge, but the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, says the agent didn’t have the proper authority to sign the contract.

As a result, the memorandum of agreement approved by county commissioners has never been in force and ICE has never paid rent.

“Both parties have not fully executed an agreement but DHS has been occupying the space for roughly 38 months,” Pinsley said in the memo. “Uncollected revenue to date amounts to $115,425.51. Management could possibly enforce late fees of $7,600.”

No one from ICE could immediately be reached for comment.

Pinsley, a Democrat running for Congress in the Lehigh Valley-based 7th District, said the situation reflects poorly on the county, “creating the impression that county government is not standing with working families or protecting community stability.” The county should explore legal avenues to recoup the money and evict the agency, he added.

“This organization’s actions terrorize neighborhoods and create fear rather than safety. Conduct of this kind is incompatible with democratic governance,” Pinsley wrote. “I think the county should be unequivocal and tell ICE: Pay your bills, pack your s—, and get the hell out!” the memo concludes.

Pinsley is one of seven Democrats vying to challenge Incumbent Republican U.S. Rep Ryan Mackenzie in November. Mackenzie immediately blasted Pinsley over the news conference, calling it a political stunt.

“Politics should never get in the way of allowing law enforcement to do its job,” Mackenzie said in a statement. “You don’t need to hold a press conference to address a rent dispute with law enforcement. Instead of negotiating in good faith with HSI, Mr. Pinsley has chosen to attack an office that — I’m sure he knows — works to investigate human trafficking and other serious crimes. Law enforcement and the people of the Lehigh Valley deserve better than politically-motivated stunts from self-interested extremists.”

At the news conference, a member of the activist group Make the Road Pennsylvania spoke, calling ICE a rogue agency that has terrorized immigrants.

Dahiana Espinal — in remarks delivered in Spanish and translated by a Make the Road colleague, Angelo Ortega — said it has been a year since President Donald Trump began sending what she called his “secret police” into communities.

“We demand that ICE stop using our government buildings for their staging, but more importantly, we demand ICE be held accountable and be removed from our communities for good,” she said.