UPPER BERN TOWNSHIP, Pa. – Today, the Berks County commissioners said their position hasn’t changed.<\/p>\n
“Confirmed reports there’s been a pause in the purchase, and for those that have been purchased, what’s going to happen with those?,” asked Commissioner Dante Santoni, Jr.<\/p>\n
The Department of Homeland Security’s pause on the purchase of new warehouses to hold immigrants continues.<\/p>\n
This includes warehouses in both Upper Bern Township, Berks County, and Tremont Township in Schuylkill County.<\/p>\n
County commissioners and local residents continue to address the issue, as Berks County Commissioner Christian Leinbach read from submitted comments.<\/p>\n
“Why on earth would you believe anything DHS says?,” said County Commissioner Christian Leinbach.<\/p>\n
Contract reviews for the proposed facilities are underway, after Markwayne Mullin recently replaced Kristi Noem as DHS secretary.<\/p>\n
Commissioner Christian Leinbach says Berks County’s position has been clear.<\/p>\n
“I think this board has been very transparent about the stopping from day one,” Leinbach said.<\/p>\n
What do the Berks County commissioners want to see when it comes to these proposals?<\/p>\n
“I’ve asked for all the fiscal issues to be addressed in writing, in a legally enforceable document,” Leinbach said. “For the right of the county to have access to ensure humane treatment.”<\/p>\n
Leinbach says the Berks and Schuylkill County commissioners are requesting separate meetings with DHS on these issues.<\/p>\n
Santoni addressed the price tag on the Upper Bern Township warehouse.<\/p>\n
“Unfortunately, they paid $87 million dollars for that facility, which I think is outrageous. It will not open in Berks County,” he said.<\/p>\n
DHS says its review of ICE’s warehouse plan is a normal part of the transition to new leadership.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UPPER BERN TOWNSHIP, Pa. – Today, the Berks County commissioners said their position hasn’t changed. “Confirmed reports there’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":155768,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[349,10201,23070,966,28,128,130,129,231,45560,70570],"class_list":{"0":"post-155767","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-reading","8":"tag-berks-county","9":"tag-dante-santoni","10":"tag-department-of-homeland-security","11":"tag-jr","12":"tag-pennsylvania","13":"tag-reading-city","14":"tag-reading-city-headlines","15":"tag-reading-city-news","16":"tag-schuylkill-county","17":"tag-tremont-township","18":"tag-upper-bern-township-warehouse"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155767","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=155767"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155767\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}