The facilities were reportedly purchased by ICE without local officials’ knowledge.<\/p>\n
BERKS COUNTY, Pa. \u2014 Governor Josh Shapiro says he will use every legal and regulatory option available to stop two proposed Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities planned for Berks and Schuylkill counties.<\/p>\n
Speaking in Berks County after meeting with more than 20 local leaders, including the Republican and Democratic commissioners in both counties, Shapiro sharply criticized the federal government\u2019s handling of the projects and outlined concerns about infrastructure, transparency and community impact.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to be very clear \u2014 I don’t want either of these sites here in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,\u201d Shapiro said. \u201cWhile the federal government has enormous power to place these across the country, I want you to know we are not powerless here in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. And I intend to use every tool at my disposal to stop these facilities from coming here.\u201d<\/p>\n
The governor said local officials learned about the projects only after property transactions were finalized.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of frustration with the secrecy around this process,\u201d Shapiro said. \u201cThey really didn’t learn about this until the deeds were filed and the deal was done, and so that rendered them really powerless to stop it.\u201d<\/p>\n
ICE finalized its purchase of large warehouses in Upper Bern Township in Berks County and Tremont Township in Schuylkill County this month, though federal officials have released few details about how the sites will operate.<\/p>\n
The Berks County location will reportedly serve as a processing center, while the Schuylkill County property may act as a detention facility housing thousands of people.<\/p>\n
One of the most significant issues raised during the governor\u2019s meeting involved water capacity in Schuylkill County.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know, for example, in Tremont, that if this is built, they will literally run out of water within 24 hours,\u201d Shapiro said. \u201cThat means that they literally won’t be able to turn on the water in their kitchen and fill up a pot of water. They won’t be able to flush the toilet.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shapiro added the existing system already struggles to meet demand.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Tremont water system today services 700 households. They would need to triple their capacity,\u201d he said. \u201cThere’s just simply no capacity in the ground for the amount of water that would be needed.\u201d<\/p>\n
State and local officials have similarly warned that sewer systems, drinking water supplies and emergency services could be overwhelmed if the facilities move forward.<\/p>\n
Shapiro emphasized that opposition crossed party lines among local leaders and criticized federal officials for failing to answer local questions about the projects.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was speaking to Republicans and Democrats, and, at times during the conversation, you wouldn’t know who was the Democrat [or] who was the Republican,\u201d he said. \u201cFolks were universal in expressing their concerns about this. The federal government is not answering the questions and is not providing the answers that this community needs,\u201d Shapiro said.<\/p>\n
The governor reiterated his opposition, pointing to what he described as constitutional and quality-of-life concerns and promised continued action from the state.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am against these facilities,\u201d Shapiro said. \u201cI’m going to do everything in my legal power and my regulatory power to see to it that these facilities are not cited here in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The facilities were reportedly purchased by ICE without local officials’ knowledge. BERKS COUNTY, Pa. \u2014 Governor Josh Shapiro…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":124456,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[128,130,129],"class_list":{"0":"post-124455","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\/124455","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=124455"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124455\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}