{"id":266107,"date":"2026-08-15T22:28:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T22:28:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/266107\/"},"modified":"2026-08-15T22:28:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T22:28:12","slug":"ice-considering-buying-immigrant-detention-facilities-other-options-to-maintain-capacity-in-pa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/266107\/","title":{"rendered":"ICE considering buying immigrant detention facilities, other options to maintain capacity in Pa."},"content":{"rendered":"

This story was produced by the State College regional bureau of Spotlight PA<\/a>, an independent, nonpartisan newsroom dedicated to investigative and public-service journalism for Pennsylvania. Sign up for Talk of the Town, a newsletter of local stories that dig deep, events, and more from north-central PA, at spotlightpa.org\/newsletters\/talkofthetown<\/a>.<\/p>\n

By MELISSA P\u00c9REZ-CARRILLO
Spotlight PA State College<\/p>\n

CLEARFIELD \u2014 In mid-July, ICE published a request for information<\/a> on \u201cturn-key detention services\u201d for four regions across the country, including central Pennsylvania, where it already has the largest immigration detention facility in the Northeast.<\/p>\n

Local activists worry ICE is either trying to contract directly with GEO Group \u2014 which owns and operates Moshannon Valley Processing Center \u2014 or even potentially buy the facility.<\/p>\n

When asked about what the RFI means for Moshannon, an ICE spokesperson told Spotlight PA in an Aug. 10 email that \u201cICE has access to over 80,000 beds across its entire detention network in a mixture of dedicated and non-dedicated facilities. As existing detention contracts in certain locations approach expiration, ICE is working to ensure continued access to detention capacity in those areas. As part of this effort, ICE is evaluating options, including the potential purchase of turnkey detention facilities where appropriate, or other contracting solutions to support continuity of operations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Currently, Clearfield County acts as a middleman between ICE and GEO Group, an arrangement that provides the county government with a \u201cminor\u201d level of oversight over the facility, which has long been accused of physical and psychological abuse, poor healthcare, and inhumane conditions<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Clearfield County\u2019s five-year contracts with ICE and GEO Group are set to expire in late September. The setup offered a workaround to former President Joe Biden\u2019s 2021 executive order banning private federal prisons, which President Donald Trump reversed in 2025.<\/p>\n

Activist Tim Smith, who says he has been fighting against immigration detention facilities for 23 years, first alerted commissioners about the RFI in an email on July 13.<\/p>\n

Smith was a plaintiff in an October 2021 lawsuit<\/a> filed by the ACLU of Pennsylvania against the Clearfield County commissioners for failing to comply with the state\u2019s open meetings law in regard to approving contracts with ICE and GEO Group.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s happening now is even more stark than what was happening five years ago,\u201d Smith said during public comment at the July 14 commissioners meeting. \u201cI would hope that today on Bastille Day that we take at least an emergency measure to show your disapproval of what is coming.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe [Moshannon] warden talked to us and swears GEO isn\u2019t selling the facility to ICE,\u201d Clearfield County Commissioner Dave Glass told the newsroom in a July 22 email. As for a potential contract between ICE and GEO Group, the warden had no information, Glass said. \u201cAnd we\u2019ve heard nothing else.\u201d<\/p>\n

The warden did not return a request for comment, nor did GEO Group.<\/p>\n

However, the company\u2019s founder and CEO George Zoley told shareholders in a second-quarter earnings call last week that GEO Group is \u201cengaged in an active process for the sale of several of our turnkey facilities, subject to mutual agreement on price and our continued management of those facilities under long-term support services contracts.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also said that \u201cseveral other GEO facilities have support services<\/p>\n

contracts that expire later this year. ICE has initiated a procurement process<\/p>\n

involving four facilities that we hope will result in new long-term support services<\/p>\n

contracts being awarded.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zoley did not specify during the call which facilities he was referring to for potential sales or renewed contracts.<\/p>\n

According to the RFI posting<\/a>, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security \u201crequires one or more Contractor Owned\/Contractor-Operated detention facilities\u201d in the Denver, Miami, Seattle, and Philadelphia \u201careas of responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Philadelphia AOR \u2014 which includes Pennsylvania, Delaware, and West Virginia \u2014 facility should have a minimum of 1,800 detention beds and be located within 30 driving miles of State College Regional Airport.<\/p>\n

Moshannon Valley has a bed capacity of 1,876 and is a roughly 27-mile drive from the airport.<\/p>\n

The airport has become a major hub for ICE flights, with a massive jump from two flights in all of 2025 to 28 in April, 25 in May, and 23 in June, according to data from Human Rights First<\/a>, a nonprofit that advocates for refugees and immigrants.<\/p>\n

The RFI expands potential sites to include turnkey existing facilities, those requiring upgrades, and new constructions, with the caveat that properties must be able to begin housing detainees within 30 days of contract award and only house ICE detainees.<\/p>\n

ICE is using the RFI to see what markets have available and how quickly it can ramp up its detention numbers, said C\u00e9sar Cuauht\u00e9moc Garc\u00eda Hern\u00e1ndez, a law professor at Ohio State who specializes in the intersection of criminal and immigration law.<\/p>\n

With the lack of transparency, it\u2019s difficult to say whether this RFI is an effort to get ahead of Clearfield\u2019s upcoming contract renewals with ICE and GEO Group, Garc\u00eda Hern\u00e1ndez told Spotlight PA.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo often, it\u2019s hard to understand just what they\u2019re doing, nonetheless, why they\u2019re doing it, and the reason for that is that oftentimes they don\u2019t tell us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In September 2021, Clearfield County commissioners voted to enter into a five-year intergovernmental service agreement<\/a> with ICE \u201cto provide detention services for detainees,\u201d according to the agreement.<\/p>\n

Commissioners also approved a services contract with GEO Group, an international company based in Florida that owns and operates correctional and detention facilities around the globe. It \u201crequires GEO to perform all duties and accept all responsibilities incumbent upon\u201d the county under its agreement with ICE, according to the contract.<\/p>\n

With the contracts ending in September, some community members worry that ICE will cut the county out of the equation rather than renew the arrangement.<\/p>\n

For Jasmine Rivera, executive director of the Pennsylvania Immigration Coalition, it doesn\u2019t matter who holds the contract, because the facility is still running, separating families, and incarcerating loved ones.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always unjust, always abusive, and it\u2019s always unnecessary, regardless of who or how detention centers are being operated,\u201d Rivera told Spotlight PA.<\/p>\n

Pennsylvania U.S. Reps. Chris Deluzio, Madeleine Dean, and Summer Lee, all Democrats, wrote letters to ICE<\/a> and GEO Group<\/a> last week \u201cto demand answers on GEO\u2019s failure to comply with federal standards of adequate staffing and medical care to detainees, as well as obstruction of congressional oversight,\u201d according to a news release.<\/p>\n

Dean conducted a visit to Moshannon Valley Processing Center on June 17. Lee and Deluzio also went to the facility unannounced on May 28, and spoke to pregnant women who said they were receiving poor medical care<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese failures are not accidental; they are the predictable result of a privatized, for-profit detention business model,\u201d Dean, Deluzio, and Lee wrote in their letter to GEO Group.<\/p>\n

Local activists have implored commissioners to take on more oversight at the facility. The intergovernmental agreement allows commissioners to enter the facility with 24-hour notice, but the officials have been denied access in the past<\/a>, raising concerns about how much oversight they actually have.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we all need to just be very honest that this \u2018so-called\u2019 oversight doesn\u2019t prevent abuse,\u201d Rivera said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are the lowest common denominator,\u201d Commissioner Tim Winters said during the July 14 meeting. \u201cWe cannot open or close this facility. We have a minor say and a minor oversight.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the July 28 commissioners meeting, Winters said there have been no updates to ICE\u2019s and GEO Group\u2019s contract with the county, but that it\u2019s \u201cin process.\u201d Commissioners noted that this is in line with the time frame of the 2021 contract.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they offer a contract, we\u2019ll certainly look at it. I\u2019ve already said I\u2019m going to vote no on it,\u201d Glass said during the July 14 meeting.<\/p>\n

SUPPORT THIS JOURNALISM and help us reinvigorate local news in north-central Pennsylvania at spotlightpa.org\/donate<\/a>. Spotlight PA is funded by foundations and readers like you<\/a> who are committed to accountability and public-service journalism that gets results.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This story was produced by the State College regional bureau of Spotlight PA, an independent, nonpartisan newsroom dedicated…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":266108,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-266107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266107","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=266107"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266107\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}