{"id":127361,"date":"2026-03-02T13:01:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T13:01:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/127361\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T13:01:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T13:01:10","slug":"shapiro-vows-to-block-ice-detention-centers-warns-of-devastating-impact-on-local-pa-communities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/127361\/","title":{"rendered":"Shapiro vows to block ICE detention centers, warns of devastating impact on local Pa. communities"},"content":{"rendered":"

This story was produced by the Berks County bureau of Spotlight <\/a>PA<\/a>, an independent, nonpartisan newsroom. <\/p>\n

READING \u2014 Gov. Josh Shapiro says he will use \u201cevery tool at his disposal\u201d to stop planned ICE detention centers in Berks and Schuylkill Counties, though he stopped short of discussing what levers his administration may pull.<\/p>\n

Following a bipartisan meeting of local officials on Thursday, Shapiro reaffirmed his strong opposition to the facilities but said he wanted to be careful about \u201cprojecting\u201d the specific legal steps that may be taken. Earlier this week, Maryland\u2019s attorney general filed a lawsuit to block a detention center there.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve taken this president to court 19 times [as governor], not lost a single case,\u201d Shapiro said in a news conference after the meeting. \u201cPart of the reason why we\u2019re so successful is we don\u2019t forecast all of it ahead of time. We dot our i\u2019s, we cross our t\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shapiro hosted the meeting at the Berks County Agricultural Center in Bern Township to privately speak with local commissioners and state representatives about the proposed facilities. He did not present any new information about the facilities during the news conference, but he said the common theme among the gathered elected officials was concern about the impact on local communities.<\/p>\n

Tremont Township in Schuylkill County, where ICE has planned a 7,500-bed detention center, for example, would run out of water within 24 hours of the facility opening and would need to triple its water capacity, Shapiro said.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet me explain what that means to the average homeowner nearby on that system,\u201d Shapiro said. \u201cThat means that they literally won\u2019t be able to turn on the water in their kitchen and fill up a pot of water. They won\u2019t be able to flush the toilet.\u201d<\/p>\n

An ICE spokesperson said in a statement to Spotlight PA that the planned facilities in Tremont and Upper Bern Township \u201cwill undergo community impact studies and a rigorous due diligence process to make sure there is no hardship on local utilities or infrastructure prior to purchase.\u201d The representative, whom ICE did not name in the email to Spotlight PA, also said the agency expected the facilities to create 11,000 jobs and bring in more than $283.4 million in tax revenue.<\/p>\n

It is unclear how ICE calculated its estimate or if the agency completed an economic assessment.<\/p>\n

Shapiro contradicted ICE\u2019s general claims and said the facilities would hurt, not help, the local economies, as well as take water, sewer, health care, and emergency services resources from residents.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to be able to create the kind of jobs that are going to be family-sustaining,\u201d Shapiro said. \u201cWe want to create the kind of jobs that aren\u2019t going to undermine the trust in the community between law enforcement and the neighbors that they serve and protect.\u201d<\/p>\n

The governor also warned that local providers are already struggling to meet current health care needs, and the current system does not have the capacity to absorb thousands of ICE detainees.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou go add 9,000 people to two warehouses in this region. The federal government is either going to pull away health care personnel from existing health care facilities for the community, or they\u2019re not going to be able to have the kind of health care that is needed to be able to care for those who are in those facilities,\u201d Shapiro said.<\/p>\n

Shapiro and several cabinet officials sent Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem letters earlier this month, warning her that the administration would not issue required state permits for the centers if initial reporting about the facilities is accurate.<\/p>\n

Shapiro expanded Thursday and said his administration is exploring \u201ca number of regulatory steps\u201d through the departments of environmental protection, health, and labor and industry to stop the development of the facilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not going to get into specific steps we are going to take, but I can assure you, over the next couple of weeks or so, we\u2019ll be prepared to take them,\u201d Shapiro said.<\/p>\n

At least two other states have had recent success in preventing or slowing the progress of similar facilities.<\/p>\n

Maryland sued the Trump administration earlier this week, claiming that the federal government violated the National Environmental Policy Act by not conducting an environmental review or seeking public input prior to purchasing and making plans to retrofit a facility in Washington County.<\/p>\n

The federal government recently dropped plans to build an ICE facility in Merrimack, New Hampshire, after Republican Governor Kelly Ayotte met with Noem in Washington, D.C. That meeting happened after Ayotte faced weeks of pushback from residents and local elected leaders.<\/p>\n

Two of the three Berks County commissioners have stopped short of condemning the ICE facility, but have said they were frustrated by the federal government\u2019s lack of transparency. They are also concerned about the impact on local communities, especially since the facility would be exempt from local property taxes. Commissioners Christian Leinbach and Michael Rivera, both Republicans, said at a town hall meeting Feb. 11 that they needed to learn more about the facility before taking an opinion on whether to support it.<\/p>\n

Commissioner Dante Santoni, the lone Democrat of the group, vocally opposed the processing center at the same town hall meeting, saying it would be harmful to the community\u2019s finances and morale.<\/p>\n

Leinbach and Santoni attended a virtual meeting on Monday with DHS officials organized by U.S. Rep. Dan Meuser (R., Pa.). Leinbach told Spotlight PA that few of their questions were answered, but he expected another meeting in the near future.<\/p>\n

\u201cSchuylkill County and Berks County did not throw any softballs,\u201d Leinbach said.<\/p>\n

They did learn that DHS expects to use an onsite sewer tank system, Leinbach said. In that case, it would be separate from the local sewer system, which residents have worried will be overused by the facility. He did not know if the system \u2014 which would be routinely pumped, with waste taken to a treatment plant \u2014 would require a permit from the Department of Environmental Protection.<\/p>\n

Shapiro said Thursday that even if the refuse is trucked to a treatment facility, DEP would need to be involved. Additionally, he criticized the impact running sewer and water to the sites would have on local traffic and roadway infrastructure.<\/p>\n

His concerns also extended to the care of people housed in each facility. Shapiro said the leaders gathered, both Democrats and Republicans, shared concerns about safety in the facilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m extremely concerned about human rights abuses that we\u2019ve seen from ICE all across this country, and I do not want that coming here to Pennsylvania, which is why we\u2019re organizing and mobilizing to do everything we can to stop it,\u201d Shapiro said. \u201cI think the concerns about human rights are very real. By the way, we heard it from Republican and Democratic officeholders in this meeting.\u201d<\/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 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. READING \u2014…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":127362,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":{"0":"post-127361","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pennsylvania","8":"tag-pennsylvania","9":"tag-pennsylvania-headlines","10":"tag-pennsylvania-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127361","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=127361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127361\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/127362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}