{"id":307278,"date":"2026-10-15T15:32:07","date_gmt":"2026-10-15T15:32:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/307278\/"},"modified":"2026-10-15T15:32:07","modified_gmt":"2026-10-15T15:32:07","slug":"pa-election-2026-where-garrity-shapiro-stand-on-ice-detention-and-other-immigration-issues-wyoming-county-examiner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/307278\/","title":{"rendered":"Pa. election 2026: Where Garrity, Shapiro stand on ICE detention and other immigration issues \u2013 Wyoming County Examiner"},"content":{"rendered":"

Spotlight PA<\/a> is an independent, nonpartisan, and nonprofit newsroom producing investigative and public-service journalism that holds power to account and drives positive change in Pennsylvania. Sign up for our free newsletters<\/a>.<\/p>\n

HARRISBURG \u2014 Pennsylvania\u2019s next governor will shape the commonwealth\u2019s ongoing response to the Trump administration\u2019s campaign of mass deportation, as well as a slew of other immigration issues.<\/p>\n

The two major party candidates for the office have starkly different approaches.<\/p>\n

Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat seeking a second term, has publicly criticized ICE tactics. He vowed to use \u201cevery tool\u201d to stop the agency\u2019s plans to convert two large, vacant warehouses into mass detention centers. After his administration cited environmental laws to bar federal officials from carrying out their conversion plan, ICE abandoned the idea<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Republican candidate Stacy Garrity, the state Treasurer, has said Pennsylvanians and public officials should cooperate with ICE. She did not take a definitive stance <\/a>on ICE\u2019s warehouse detention plans, and criticized Shapiro\u2019s vocal opposition to the facilities as political \u201cposturing<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the Trump administration has continued to pour historic investment into ICE<\/a>, the agency\u2019s presence in Pennsylvania has increased. Since December 2024, 140 local governments have agreed to 287(g) partnerships, in which they collaborate with federal immigration officials. That\u2019s the fourth most in the country, behind only Florida, Texas, and Missouri.<\/p>\n

The federal government establishes immigration law, but governors can influence enforcement in their states.<\/p>\n

Those who oppose the Trump administration\u2019s policies can champion state budget-line items that allocate money to legal counsel for anyone facing deportation<\/a>, establish commissions<\/a> aimed at protecting immigrants and their personal information, and join or file lawsuits<\/a> against the federal government. Plus, they can ban state and executive law enforcement from honoring detainers<\/a>, which are requests from ICE to hold a person for up to 48 extra hours<\/a> past their normal release time.<\/p>\n

The state\u2019s chief executive can also use environmental and zoning laws to block infrastructure they oppose, as Shapiro did with ICE\u2019s planned warehouses.<\/p>\n

Governors who back the administration can work closely with federal officials<\/a> to build detention centers, push for more funding<\/a> for ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, order state agencies to freeze new H1-B visa petitions<\/a>, and transport migrants<\/a> to Democratic-controlled areas.<\/p>\n

Governors of all political persuasions can sign or veto relevant laws.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a look at what Garrity and Shapiro have said on key immigration issues.<\/p>\n

Cooperating with ICE<\/p>\n

Shapiro has condemned federal immigration policies<\/a> and taken tangible steps to make it harder for ICE to operate in Pennsylvania \u2014 though the ACLU has pushed him to do more.<\/p>\n

Garrity declined to answer Spotlight PA\u2019s specific questions about how the state should interact with ICE, but called the Biden administration\u2019s immigration policies \u201cdangerous and irresponsible\u201d and said Trump had secured the southern border. She has previously said<\/a> Pennsylvanians and officials should \u201ccooperate\u201d with ICE, and in a statement her campaign said the commonwealth \u201cneeds a governor who will work with the federal government, not sue it.\u201d<\/p>\n

State and local collaboration with ICE took on particular prominence after the agency killed Ren\u00e9e Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis in January. At the time, Shapiro answered questions at a book signing event for his memoir, saying his administration does not cooperate with immigration officials.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do not do ICE\u2019s work for them here in Pennsylvania,\u201d Shapiro said, according<\/a> to the Capital-Star. \u201cOur state police [don\u2019t] ask for people\u2019s status and we do not share any of that information with the federal government.\u201d<\/p>\n

The administration \u200b\u200bpublished guidance laying out people\u2019s rights<\/a> if they are stopped by ICE in public or visited at their homes. And a Pennsylvania State Police policy<\/a> from 2022 \u2014 before Shapiro took office \u2014 says troopers should not search or arrest people based on immigration status, citizenship, or nationality. State Police are also not allowed to arrest or detain someone based on an ICE administrative warrant, only a judicial warrant.<\/p>\n

\u201cPSP does not and will not make operational decisions based on ICE priorities,\u201d the Shapiro administration said in a January letter to Pennsylvania community leaders.<\/p>\n

Legal experts told Spotlight PA in February<\/a> that the State Police\u2019s four-year-old policy could be more definitive, and has the potential to open the door for troopers to inform ICE operations.<\/p>\n

The policy allows State Police to communicate directly with federal immigration officials about a criminal \u201cimmigration warrant.\u201d Additionally, if a trooper learns in the course of their job that a person is a foreign national, they may provide that information to ICE, provided they submit an internal report documenting the sharing.<\/p>\n

(The Shapiro administration argued this is rare, telling Spotlight PA that in 2025 there were 50 instances of State Police officers contacting ICE after encounters with foreign nationals; troopers conduct hundreds of thousands of traffic stops annually.)<\/p>\n

Advocacy groups like the ACLU have called on Shapiro\u2019s administration<\/a> to stop sharing state-managed data through the Pennsylvania Justice Network (JNET), an intergovernmental database<\/a> that contains court records and criminal histories. Another state database used by law enforcement, the Commonwealth Law Enforcement Assistance Network, also contains information about Pennsylvanians\u2019 criminal histories, as well as driver\u2019s licenses.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe governor could cut off unrestricted ICE access to these databases today and force ICE to get a judicial warrant every time the agency wants to use these tools,\u201d wrote ACLU Advocacy and Policy Strategist Alex Domingos in July<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A 2024 report<\/a> from the ACLU identified 16 instances over the previous 8 years in which ICE used JNET to identify people for arrests. For one arrest in 2020, ICE used JNET to search for the photo of a person scheduled for a probation appointment in Lehigh County.<\/p>\n

The Shapiro administration said in a statement that \u201coutside agencies do not have unfettered access to state databases,\u201d but that it is \u201ccurrently reviewing how ICE, CBP, and other federal government agencies can access our systems.\u201d<\/p>\n

When an outside law enforcement agency uses the databases, the statement said, Pennsylvania logs and tracks the request. Agencies can\u2019t search for people based on immigration status, race, ethnicity, or nationality because the databases do not \u201ccategorically maintain information about immigration status or country of origin.\u201d<\/p>\n

The governor\u2019s office also pointed out that ICE does not need state databases to access information about immigrants in Pennsylvania, so restricting the agency\u2019s use of state databases would not prevent federal agents from tracking a person via national databases.<\/p>\n

While Garrity didn\u2019t respond to specific questions about whether and how she would cooperate with ICE as governor, she said Shapiro supported former President Joe Biden\u2019s \u201cfailed immigration policies.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThankfully, the Trump Administration reversed those dangerous and irresponsible policies, and our border is finally secure, but the pain remains,\u201d a spokesperson for Garrity told Spotlight PA over email. \u201cAs a result of those Shapiro-endorsed policies, thousands of Pennsylvanians lost their lives to fentanyl overdose or were victims of other crimes.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the January appearance at which Garrity said it is \u201cbest to cooperate\u201d with ICE, she also said that her time as an Army officer gave her \u201ca different perspective\u201d and that the best approach to the then-ongoing conflict in Minnesota was to \u201ccooperate and take down the rhetoric,\u201d according to The Inquirer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Detention centers<\/p>\n

The number of people arrested and then detained in Pennsylvania surged from 276 in January 2025 to 1,150 in July 2026, according to the Deportation Data Project<\/a>, a University of California initiative that aggregates immigration enforcement datasets.<\/p>\n

As detention rates have increased, advocates have called for ICE facilities in the state to be shut down. This includes Moshannon Valley Processing Center, the largest immigration detention facility in the Northeast.<\/p>\n

During this time, Shapiro has worked to limit ICE detention centers in the commonwealth, and Garrity has criticized that response.<\/p>\n

Moshannon has long faced allegations of poor medical care, substandard food quality, and abuse. A 2024 Temple University report<\/a> concluded people detained there were subject to \u201cpunitive, inhumane, and dangerous conditions.\u201d In June, Shapiro called for an independent inspection of the facility<\/a> after Pennsylvania Department of Corrections officials were denied entry and were told \u201cthey had no authority to conduct an inspection and would never be permitted to enter the facility at any time,\u201d the Shapiro administration said.<\/p>\n

Since then, DOC officials haven\u2019t attempted another inspection. The Shapiro administration \u201ccontinues to call for a full, thorough, and independent inspection of the Moshannon facility,\u201d it said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Along with Moshannon, ICE has agreements to use jails in Clinton, Erie, Franklin, and Pike Counties, which raked in more than $21 million<\/a> for detention in 2024 and 2025.<\/p>\n

In January, ICE purchased warehouses<\/a> in Berks and Schuylkill Counties without sharing how it planned to use them. It wasn\u2019t until February that county commissioners confirmed the agency planned to flip them into detention centers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On Feb. 12, Shapiro wrote a letter to then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem<\/a> warning that ICE would not receive the required state permits for water and sewage systems if the agency moved forward. Pennsylvania was one of almost a dozen states that fought to stop ICE from purchasing and using empty warehouses for immigration detention, whether through lawsuits or public pressure.<\/p>\n

On March 6, the Department of Environmental Protection issued five administrative orders<\/a>, two to the Department of Homeland Security and three to local authorities. The orders prevented water and sewage from being supplied to the warehouses and the building from being occupied until the Department of Homeland Security showed compliance with federal and state environmental laws.<\/p>\n

\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 Shapiro said after ICE pulled out of the warehouses<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Advocates have also called on the Shapiro administration to shut down Abraxas Academy in Berks County, which operates partly as a detention facility for children<\/a>. Abraxas has also faced allegations of abuse and neglect<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Shapiro administration said in a statement that the state Department of Human Services investigates credible complaints. Pennsylvania officials visit the facility weekly and regularly meet with immigration advocates, the administration said, but added that the state has no role in the decision to place noncitizen children at Abraxas.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson added that if an emergency removal order was filed against the facility, noncitizen children would be transferred into the custody of the federal government.<\/p>\n

The state Department of Human Services \u201cremains committed to keeping all children in Pennsylvania safe and will remain onsite at Abraxas to ensure these youth are being cared for under our high standards,\u201d the Shapiro administration said over email.<\/p>\n

Garrity didn\u2019t respond to questions about detention centers in the state but previously said that Shapiro was \u201cgrandstanding\u201d by opposing new ICE facilities<\/a>. She called the rejection of facilities a \u201cdisservice to the seriousness of the issue at hand.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPennsylvanians deserve a governor who will put their security and their safety first, and a governor who will review issues with the seriousness that they deserve and not follow the political winds as their guide,\u201d Garrity said in a February Facebook post<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Commercial driver\u2019s licenses<\/p>\n

Last year, Shapiro\u2019s administration faced federal scrutiny after ICE arrested an Uzbek national with alleged terrorist ties. The man, Akhror Bozorov, worked as a truck driver and had received his commercial driver\u2019s license in Pennsylvania. The Trump administration blamed \u201cGovernor Shapiro\u2019s Pennsylvania\u201d for issuing it.<\/p>\n

Shapiro responded that PennDOT relies on a federal database<\/a> to check the status of noncitizen drivers, and that Bozorov had not been flagged there as a potential risk.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration threatened to withhold nearly $75 million from Pennsylvania if it did not immediately revoke what it claimed were illegally issued CDLs to immigrants. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration also conducted an investigation<\/a> into PennDOT\u2019s CDL program and found that it has issued \u201cnon-domiciled CDLs that extend beyond the expiration of drivers\u2019 lawful presence in the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bozorov\u2019s arrest and FMCSA\u2019s findings drew attention from Republican state lawmakers. They convened a Pennsylvania Senate panel to examine the process for granting trucking licenses and to identify potential loopholes that could be closed with legislation.<\/p>\n

Following a federal directive<\/a>, Pennsylvania\u2019s transportation department paused issuing<\/a> commercial driver\u2019s licenses to noncitizens who have work permits or specific work visas.<\/p>\n

Shapiro supported legislation to strengthen CDL guardrails. In August, he signed into law a Republican-backed bill<\/a> that cracks down on unlicensed CDL schools.<\/p>\n

The administration, however, opposes the federal government\u2019s attempts to access Pennsylvania commercial driver records. Shapiro joined a coalition of 21 state governors suing the U.S. Department of Transportation<\/a> for demanding personal records from a federal database of commercial drivers.<\/p>\n

Garrity\u2019s campaign did not respond to Spotlight PA\u2019s questions on what specific policy changes she would support to strengthen CDL requirements.<\/p>\n

However, Garrity has been an outspoken critic of the state\u2019s CDL program under Shapiro. In a recent campaign video<\/a> she said he had allowed \u201cunqualified, illegally present drivers\u201d to hold licenses.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis isn\u2019t about immigration talking points. This is about whether Harrisburg can be trusted to run a basic licensing system, and right now it can\u2019t,\u201d Garrity said.<\/p>\n

Last November, she called for<\/a> \u201ca full investigation into the issuance of a Pennsylvania CDL to suspected terrorist Akhor [sic] Bozorov under the Shapiro Administration.\u201d And in an August interview<\/a> with a conservative radio host, Garrity criticized PennDOT for administering CDL exams in multiple languages, and the governor\u2019s administration for not sharing information about Pennsylvania CDL drivers with the Trump administration.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo me, that\u2019s crazy. If people are supposed to be able to speak English for these CDLs, that\u2019s a huge issue,\u201d Garrity said.<\/p>\n

PennDOT offers written, knowledge tests in multiple languages, but the three-part skills test is administered in English, as required by federal regulations<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Pennsylvania\u2019s agricultural workers<\/p>\n

Though experts say the Trump administration isn\u2019t focusing its raids<\/a> on farms recently, laborers across the country have reported<\/a> work disruptions and pervasive fear in the industry.<\/p>\n

Pennsylvania is no exception<\/a>. Lawmakers and leaders in the agriculture sector have warned<\/a> that increased immigration enforcement at farms could lead to worker shortages and disrupt the state\u2019s food supply.<\/p>\n

About 7.5% of the 60,475 workers hired by Pennsylvania farms in 2022 were migrants, according to the most recent USDA data<\/a>. A significant portion of those workers, almost 30%, were employed in Adams County\u2019s fruit belt.<\/p>\n

In a statement, the Shapiro administration said it \u201chas heard from farmers across the Commonwealth about the hardships they are facing as a result of the Trump Administration\u2019s cruel and chaotic policies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding said he supports programs like H-2A visas, which allow immigrants to come to the United States to work seasonal farm jobs. Redding also stressed the need for federal reforms that expand seasonal farm work to year-round, and make it easier for businesses to participate in the program. (The Trump administration has also supported<\/a> overhauling H-2A visas.)<\/p>\n

Shapiro signed legislation in February 2025 that allows permanent legal residents to become certified poultry technicians after completing a state-administered training course.<\/p>\n

Garrity has made support for farmers and Pennsylvania\u2019s agriculture industry a central tenet of her campaign. But she did not respond to questions about how immigration policies could affect farms, and has not addressed the issue publicly.<\/p>\n

She has, however, said she supports<\/a> prohibiting foreign entities that pose a threat to the U.S. from purchasing Pennsylvania farmland.<\/p>\n

BEFORE YOU GO\u2026 If you learned something from this article, pay it forward and contribute to Spotlight PA at spotlightpa.org\/donate<\/a>. Spotlight PA is funded by foundations and readers like you<\/a> who are committed to accountability journalism that gets results.<\/p>\n

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