{"id":116381,"date":"2026-02-17T20:43:27","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T20:43:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/116381\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T20:43:27","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T20:43:27","slug":"shutdown-may-delay-answers-about-planned-ice-facility-in-berks-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/116381\/","title":{"rendered":"Shutdown may delay answers about planned ICE facility in Berks County"},"content":{"rendered":"

This story was produced by the Berks County bureau of Spotlight PA<\/a>, an independent, nonpartisan newsroom. Sign up for Good Day, Berks, a daily dose of essential local stories at spotlightpa.org\/newsletters\/gooddayberks<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The partial federal government shutdown may impact how quickly Berks County officials receive more information about the planned ICE processing facility<\/a> in Upper Bern Township, Commissioner Christian Leinbach told Spotlight PA on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Leinbach said he spoke with U.S. Rep. Dan Meuser (R., Pa.) and a representative of the Department of Homeland Security on Feb. 13. They said they would schedule a meeting for local elected officials, including the county commissioners and Upper Bern supervisors, to ask questions about the federal plan for the recently purchased warehouse at 3501 Mountain Road<\/a>. Officials from Schuylkill County, where DHS has planned a detention center, will also be invited, Leinbach said.<\/p>\n

They told Leinbach they had hoped to hold the meeting as soon as Feb. 18, he said, but added that it could be delayed by the shutdown, which as of Tuesday affected all departments under DHS, including ICE.<\/p>\n

The shutdown does not seem likely<\/a> to quickly end, according to the Associated Press.<\/p>\n

>>READ MORE: Everything you need to know about ICE\u2019s plan to open a detention center in Berks County<\/a><\/p>\n

Spotlight PA reached out to Upper Bern Township Solicitor Andrew Hoffman and Meuser\u2019s office to ask about the date of the meeting, but did not immediately receive a response.<\/p>\n

Leinbach said he hoped the federal representatives would hold a public meeting for residents after the private conversation with elected officials. He will inform residents of what he learns, if he\u2019s not prevented from doing so for security reasons, after the meeting, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a normal process, not just with ICE, anyone,\u201d Leinbach said of holding the private meeting before a public one. \u201cYou want to be able to ask very detailed questions \u2026 maybe be harsher than you might be in public, maybe be less formal than you would be in public. So I think that\u2019s why that\u2019s necessary as a first step.\u201d<\/p>\n

This story may be updated.<\/p>\n

BEFORE YOU GO\u2026 If you learned something from this article, pay it forward and contribute to Spotlight PA at spotlightpa.org\/donate<\/a>. Spotlight PA is funded by foundations and readers like you<\/a> who are committed to accountability journalism that gets results.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This story was produced by the Berks County bureau of Spotlight PA, an independent, nonpartisan newsroom. Sign up…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":116382,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[128,130,129],"class_list":{"0":"post-116381","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-reading","8":"tag-reading-city","9":"tag-reading-city-headlines","10":"tag-reading-city-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116381\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}