Lehigh County Executive Josh Siegel announced that his administration will be terminating a lease agreement with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security after a county-led inquiry found that an arm of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement owes the county more than $115,000 in unpaid rent after occupying county-owned office space for approximately 38 months.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am immediately terminating our lease agreement with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. They should consider themselves evicted,\u201d Lehigh County Executive Josh Siegel said Tuesday in a statement. \u201cThe department\u2019s failure to pay rent, combined with DHS\u2019s national reputation for recklessness, chaos, and public disorder, warrants ending any relationship with the County. We will not accept their blood money.\u201d<\/p>\n
Siegel, who took office earlier this month, said the county will take \u201call necessary steps to enforce the lease termination and protect the interests of Lehigh County residents.\u201d<\/p>\n
Siegel\u2019s announcement came after Lehigh County Controller Mark Pinsley sent a letter<\/a> to Siegel and the county\u2019s board of commissioners on Tuesday revealing that the Department of Homeland Security reportedly owes the county $115,425.51 in uncollected revenue.<\/p>\n The memo recommended that the county issue an immediate payment determination of outstanding rent, issue an eviction notice and explore all legal avenues of recouping lost revenue.\u00a0<\/p>\n Pinsley\u2019s memo said that the county entered into a Memorandum of Agreement with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security\u2019s Homeland Security Investigations for office space at the county\u2019s Hamilton Financial Center building in Allentown in November 2022. With the MOA approved by the county board of commissioners, DHS was able to occupy the county-owned office space.\u00a0<\/p>\n Per the memo, the term of the MOA was 10 months, beginning Dec. 1, 2022, and ending Sept. 30, 2023. However, DHS later determined that the individual who signed the MOA on their behalf lacked the authority to do so.<\/p>\n After that, a standard lease agreement began on Oct. 1, 2023 and runs through Sept. 30, 2026; Pinsley noted that because both parties never agreed to the terms of that subsequent lease agreement, the county has yet to receive payment from HSI, a law enforcement arm within ICE.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile the MOA was agreed to, both parties have not agreed to the terms of a lease agreement which is still pending to date,\u201d Pinsley wrote. \u201cAs such, no payment has been made by HSI to the county since the commencement of the MOA and lease agreement on December 1, 2022.\u201d<\/p>\n Pinsley \u2013 who described the scenario to City & State as a \u201ccalamity of errors\u201d \u2013 wrote in the memo that HSI intended to pay the county once the terms of the lease were agreed to.<\/p>\n \u201cThis organization\u2019s actions terrorize neighborhoods and create fear rather than safety. Conduct of this kind is incompatible with democratic governance,\u201d Pinsley, who is running for Congress in Pennsylvania\u2019s 7th Congressional District, wrote. \u201cI think the county should be unequivocal and tell ICE: Pay your bills, pack your stuff, and get out!\u201d<\/p>\n City & State has reached out to ICE for comment.<\/p>\n The termination of the lease agreement comes as President Donald Trump\u2019s administration has mobilized ICE officers to cities across the nation as part of a crackdown on immigration. Tensions between Democrats and Republicans over Trump\u2019s immigration enforcement efforts have escalated in recent weeks following the death of Renee Good, a 37-year-old U.S. citizen who was shot and killed by an ICE officer<\/a> during an enforcement operation in Minneapolis, Minnesota.\u00a0<\/p>\n Siegel added in a statement Tuesday that Lehigh County \u201cwill not be complicit in actions that undermine constitutional principles or weaken community confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cLet\u2019s be clear: Public safety relies on the public\u2019s trust in local law enforcement \u2013\u00a0the appearance of collaboration with ICE\/DHS means victims of trafficking, drugs and violent crime will be less likely to come forward,\u201d he said. \u201cThe only way to ensure that local residents continue to trust us is to wash away the stain of DHS\u2019s presence in our buildings. That is (the) fault of this administration in D.C. that has made the public and our officers less safe.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lehigh County Executive Josh Siegel announced that his administration will be terminating a lease agreement with the U.S.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":92111,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120,2156],"class_list":{"0":"post-92110","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-allentown","8":"tag-allentown","9":"tag-allentown-headlines","10":"tag-allentown-news","11":"tag-news-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92110","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=92110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92110\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}