Fetterman’s confirmation Monday night comes five days after the New York Times reported<\/a> ICE is scrapping plans on seven of the 11 warehouses it bought throughout the country. The newspaper reported ICE will offload the seven warehouses, which it purchased for more than $700 million. DHS bought the warehouses in Tremont Twp., Schuylkill County, and Upper Bern Twp., Berks County, for roughly $200 million.<\/p>\n
ICE did not immediately return a request for comment Tuesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI appreciate that Secretary (Markwayne) Mullin recognized the negative impacts these facilities would have in Pennsylvania\u2014including the direct threat to local economies and infrastructure\u2014and cancelled these plans,” Fetterman said in a statement.<\/p>\n DHS purchased warehouses in Tremont Twp. and Upper Bern Twp. earlier this year with plans to transform them into detention centers. The Tremont Twp. facility would have housed up to 7,500 people and the Upper Bern Twp. facility would have housed up to 1,500 people.<\/p>\n Opposition to the plans was swift. Local officials in both counties worried about the strain such a massive complex would place on infrastructure ill equipped for the burden.\u00a0<\/p>\n The facilities would have cost the local communities nearly $2 million in lost tax revenue, overwhelm existing water and sewer systems and increase demands on local electrical grids and law enforcement and EMS resources.<\/p>\n In March, the state Department of Environmental Protection threw up the first administrative roadblocks<\/a> by issuing orders barring DHS from accessing water and sewage at the facilities until it could demonstrate compliance with federal and state environmental regulations.<\/p>\n
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