In Schuylkill, a 1.3-million-square-foot former Big Lots distribution center in Tremont Township was purchased<\/a> by ICE for $119 million and was planned to house up to 7,500 people as a detention center.<\/p>\n Local officials<\/a> and community members<\/a> \u2014 as well as state officials including Gov. Josh Shapiro<\/a> \u2014 have pushed back on ICE\u2019s plans for the two sites, citing the potential drain on local resources and environmental impact.<\/p>\n Among opponents\u2019 concerts have been that the influx in population they would create would strain water and sewer systems and create difficulties for local fire and police departments. Some opponents also objected to the recent methods ICE has deployed and the reported conditions at some existing ICE facilities.<\/p>\n Upper Bern Township Solicitor Andrew Hoffman on Friday said supervisors have not heard anything about the possible transfer of the property.<\/p>\n Berks County Commissioner Christian Leinbach on Friday said that he had seen the article in the Times\u00a0but has not had any communication with federal officials about plans to offload the Bern Township property.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have had zero communication from DHS, ICE or anyone else,\u201d he said. \u201cWe found out the same way everyone else did, from the New York Times article.\u201d<\/p>\n He said he plans to reach out to Congressman Dan Meuser, whose district includes both the Berks and Schuylkill sites, to see if he has any additional information.<\/p>\n Meuser did not confirm the report in a response to the Reading Eagle on Friday. The Republican said he\u2019s in close contact with DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin and looks forward to providing a full update once a decision is made.<\/p>\n He stressed that upon first learning of the purchases of the warehouses he has worked with Schuylkill and Berks county commissioners to inform DHS officials of what would be necessary to make the facilities operable and address community concerns.<\/p>\n \u201cThis due diligence, and I give much credit to the county commissioners, was taken very seriously by DHS officials, and therefore, DHS is perhaps considering reevaluating the initial plan,\u201d he said in a statement.<\/p>\n \u201cShould the initial plan move forward, we secured favorable commitments from DHS that would be beneficial to our community,\u201d the statement continued. \u201cNevertheless, in an effort to fully cooperate, DHS is engaged in their own evaluation of the sites being developed.\u201d<\/p>\n Rachel Wallace, the Democratic candidate running against Meuser in the 9th Congressional District this fall, said she feels great pride in the way residents banded together around this issue to demand change.<\/p>\n \u201cThis was the obvious decision,\u201d she said Friday morning. \u201cBecause, taking any national political conversations out of it, this was a really stupid idea. They did not do their homework and it is a mistake that is costing our taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n Wallace also commended the county commissioners for \u201chammering DHS with questions\u201d that were important to their constituents.<\/p>\n The reaction to the report from local residents who opposed the effort to transform the warehouses into detention centers was met with cautious optimism.<\/p>\n Tremont residents Joe and Lara Wiscount, who have voiced their opposition to the plan at Schuylkill County commissioner meetings, regional protests and grassroots town halls, said they are excited and relieved.<\/p>\n \u201cIts been a long six months so we just want to catch our breath a bit,\u201d Lara Wiscount said Friday morning, noting that they are still awaiting official confirmation from DHS before they can celebrate the news.<\/p>\n Deborah Miller, chairwoman of the nonpartisan group ICE Out Upper Bern, said she\u2019s experiencing similar feelings.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are delighted and grateful to everyone who helped in the defeat of these detention centers,\u201d she said. \u201cWe are still in a little bit of a haze.\u201d<\/p>\n Miller said the question now is whether the federal government can sell the warehouses so they get back on the tax rolls.<\/p>\n Based on the current assessment of the Upper Bern property, the loss in local tax dollars would be about $200,000 in county taxes, $31,000 in township taxes and $597,000 in school district taxes.<\/p>\n \u201cThe warehouse was sitting empty before the federal government purchased it and I don\u2019t know why it would sell now,\u201d Miller said. \u201cSo there are still some financial implications that will impact the local community.\u201d<\/p>\n In Schuylkill, the county is projected to lose $222,000, the township $196,000 and the Pine Grove Area School District $555,000 in real estate taxes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Plans to transform two warehouses in Berks and Schuylkill counties into Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facilities \u2014…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":220267,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[349,52152,182,139,28,128,130,129,706],"class_list":["post-223313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-berks-county","tag-ice-warehouse","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-top-stories-reg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223313","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=223313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223313\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"ICE](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1781891531_180_RHR-L-BIGLOTS-ADV-2.jpg\")
ICE has been planning to use the Big Lots Distribution Center at 50 Rausch Creek Road in Tremont Township as a detention facility. (Republican Herald)<\/p>\n