{"id":92106,"date":"2026-01-20T23:55:06","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T23:55:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/92106\/"},"modified":"2026-01-20T23:55:06","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T23:55:06","slug":"pennsylvania-county-official-seeks-to-evict-of-dhs-and-ice-over-unpaid-rent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/92106\/","title":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania county official seeks to evict of DHS and ICE over unpaid rent"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Pennsylvania <\/a>county official on Tuesday called for the eviction\u00a0of ICE officers<\/a> from county-owned space, alleging the federal government has\u00a0not paid rent for more than three years and does not have a valid lease.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lehigh County Controller Mark Pinsley<\/a> demanded the immediate payment of more than $115,000 in unpaid rent and nearly $8,000 in late fees, a termination of all negotiations with the Department of Homeland Security<\/a>, the eviction of federal immigration enforcement agencies from county property, and accountability for county officials who knowingly allowed the arrangement to go on for years without doing something about it.<\/p>\n

\"AnA file photo of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer\u2019s vest, Sept. 19, 2025. (AP Photo\/Erin Hooley, File)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe found that they haven\u2019t been paying for nearly three years and they\u2019ve been occupying space,\u201d Pinsley, a Democrat who is running for Congress, said. He added that due to the civil and political unrest in Minneapolis and other\u00a0cities across the country, he believes the county should stop \u201chousing or helping them in any form or fashion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pinsley, who is in his second term as county controller, said DHS and ICE illegally occupied the space for 38 months, and that taxpayers absorbed utilities, maintenance, and other operational costs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lehigh County is home to about 347,557 Pennsylvanians. Its county seat is Allentown, the state\u2019s third-largest city, following Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the county should be unequivocal and tell ICE: pay your bills, pack your s***, and get the hell out,\u201d he added.\u00a0The\u00a0inquiry into ICE and DHS was initiated after a complaint was filed with Lehigh County\u2019s Controller\u2019s office. The complaint also questioned DHS\u2019s use of the space and why the agency was there in the first place.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The review identified issues that the controller\u2019s office deemed credible and significant, prompting a recommendation for immediate action by the county executive and further review by county leadership.\u00a0<\/p>\n

During a press conference, Pinsley said he felt a \u201cgrowing sense of alarm and sadness\u201d while watching ICE carry out raids in Minneapolis.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAs Lehigh County controller, I have watched Minneapolis but worry about Lehigh Valley. There were no pepper balls flying across Hamilton Street on my way to work today, but that\u2019s no guarantee that there won\u2019t be tomorrow,\u201d he said.\u00a0\u201cWe can give them a taste of their own medicine. We\u2019re going to deport ICE.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pinsley said that Homeland Security Investigations entered into an agreement with the county in 2022 to lease office space inside the Hamilton Financial Center building in Allentown. The deal was that the contract was supposed to be for 10 months, and then the federal government would enter into a three-year lease. However, the federal government now claims that the HSI\u2019s Special Agent in Charge at the time the memorandum of agreement was signed lacked the authority to do so. He also left the lease unsigned.\u00a0<\/p>\n

WHERE 2028 DEMOCRATS STAND ON ABOLISHING ICE<\/a><\/p>\n

Pinsley said continuing to allow HSI and ICE to use the space could create \u201cpublic perception risk that the County is enabling ICE,\u201d and could be \u201ccreating the impression that County government is not standing with working families or protecting community stability.\u201d<\/p>\n

DHS did not respond to an email for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Pennsylvania county official on Tuesday called for the eviction\u00a0of ICE officers from county-owned space, alleging the federal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":92107,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[25041,23070,41006,28,30,29,99],"class_list":["post-92106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-2026-elections","tag-department-of-homeland-security","tag-minneapolis","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-protests"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92106","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=92106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92106\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}