{"id":250481,"date":"2026-07-23T18:26:07","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T18:26:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/250481\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T18:26:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T18:26:07","slug":"ice-drops-plans-for-rural-pa-detention-centers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/250481\/","title":{"rendered":"ICE drops plans for rural PA detention centers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to cover? <a href=\"#Section1\">Let us know!<\/a>\n<\/p>\n<p>The federal government has abandoned plans to turn two warehouses in Berks and Schuylkill counties into immigration detention centers. Gov. Josh Shapiro <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pa.gov\/governor\/newsroom\/2026-press-releases\/shapiro-admin-confirms-proposed-ice-detention-centers-will-not-m\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">announced the move Wednesday<\/a>, citing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pa.gov\/content\/dam\/copapwp-pagov\/en\/governor\/documents\/DHS%20Ingalsbe%20Upper%20Bern-Tremonth%20letters%20to%20DEP.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">letters from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security<\/a> dated July 13 that withdrew its request for drinking water and sewage permits.\n<\/p>\n<p>The DHS had <a href=\"https:\/\/penncapital-star.com\/immigration\/pennsylvania-proposed-ice-detention-centers-will-overwhelm-existing-infrastructure\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">announced plans in January to house 9,000 people<\/a> at the former warehouses in rural Pennsylvania. The letters do not indicate how the two properties would be used.\n<\/p>\n<p>Shapiro had opposed the conversion of the facilities into detention centers because of the large volume of water needed, which he said would have impacted local residents and the environment.\n  <\/p>\n<p>\u201cFrom the beginning, I\u2019ve been clear that these warehouses should not be used as ICE detention centers because they are not suitable for people and converting them to detention centers would have posed serious risks to the health, safety, and infrastructure of the surrounding communities,\u201d Shapiro said in a statement. \u201cMy Administration stood with local leaders and residents, enforced Pennsylvania law, and worked across agencies to protect people from being held in these warehouses and to protect the surrounding communities.\u201d\n        <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":174737,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[442,28,30,29,743],"class_list":["post-250481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-gov-josh-shapiro","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-u-s-immigration-and-customs-enforcement"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250481","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=250481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250481\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}