{"id":93086,"date":"2026-01-22T00:39:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T00:39:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/93086\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T00:39:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T00:39:08","slug":"lehigh-county-gop-officials-says-ice-never-occupied-building-where-feds-owe-115k-in-back-rent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/93086\/","title":{"rendered":"Lehigh County GOP officials says ICE never occupied building where feds owe $115K in back rent"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two Lehigh County Republicans are pushing back on assertions by county officials that ICE occupied a county-owned property for three years <\/a>without paying rent.<\/p>\n

District Attorney Gavin Holihan and county commissioner Ron Beitler, both Republicans, are refuting claims that ICE and the Department of Homeland Security occupied the office space, but rather that it was dedicated to a federal human trafficking task force.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Lehigh County Executive Josh Siegel announced his decision to terminate a lease agreement with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security after a county-led probe found that a branch of the federal agency owes the county more than $115,000 in unpaid rent over more than three years of occupancy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey should consider themselves evicted,\u201d Siegel said Tuesday in a statement, according to City & State. <\/a>\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

Holihan and Beitler, however, argue the county-owned office space is not and has never been rented to ICE but that it had been designated for use by a DHS task force on human trafficking.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe exact number of ICE agents who have worked out of that location is zero,\u201d Holihan said. \u201cThere is no removal work that goes on out of there. There\u2019s no ICE stagings that go on out of there. There\u2019s no detentions that go on out of there. It is a task force devoted to human trafficking, money laundering and other complex, high-level criminal investigations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beitler criticized Seigel\u2019s decision to evict, calling the move \u201cunnecessary, disruptive and harmful to public safety.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can have concerns with the federal government right now. I do,\u201d Beitler said. \u201cReasonable people can disagree with DHS leadership, direction and federal overreach. That\u2019s fair. But evicting a local human trafficking task force because of broader objections to DHS? That\u2019s impulsive and ultimately bad for Lehigh County.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beitler said the task force had operated in county space under a \u201cmemorandum of understanding\u201d authorized by legislation unanimously approved in 2022 by a bipartisan Board of Commissioners with a Democratic majority and county executive. He said its mission was vital: identify and stop human trafficking in the region.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis task force exists to protect vulnerable people in our community,\u201d Beitler said. \u201cAs has been confirmed by the District Attorney that work continues today. This decision needlessly disrupts an effective law enforcement partnership.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Lehigh County dispute comes amid intense national scrutiny on ICE for carrying out military style tactical operations in U.S. cities, particularly in Minneapolis, where an agent earlier this month shot and killed a woman.<\/p>\n

The debate comes in the wake of an inquiry led by county controller Mark Pinsley, a Democrat, that found the alleged three-year rental delinquency on what he said was the part of ICE.<\/p>\n

Pinsley on Tuesday asserted to PennLive that the violent operations by ICE also warranted that the federal agency be evicted.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese guys are, in my opinion, terrorizing neighborhoods, and I believe they\u2019re terrorizing our residents,\u201d Pinsley said. \u201cWe as the county government should not be partaking in that at all. <\/p>\n

Pinsley on Wednesday chided Beitler and Holihan for their claims that ICE was not involved.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s be clear,\u201d Pinsley said. \u201c[Homeland Security Investigations] and ICE are the same, right? If you look at the president\u2019s executive order, he was very clear that all HSI agents have to prioritize deportation. So does that mean they\u2019re not doing any sex trafficking? No, I\u2019m sure that they are doing some sex trafficking, or at least I hope that they are. But those same agents have to prioritize deportation. There\u2019s no reason that we would let the fox into the hen house here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Under an executive order by President Donald Trump last year, ICE has been diverting law enforcement agents away from their criminal investigations and enforcement responsibilities to conduct civil immigration enforcement operations on a massive scale, according to the Cato Institute, a Libertarian think tank.<\/p>\n

The report highlighted data showing widespread misuse of government personnel and resources as thousands of state and local police have been tapped to do immigration operations.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t care what the badge is on the side of their uniform,\u201d Pinsley said. \u201cThey are the same organization.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beitler warned that applying a blanket rejection to entities connected to the DHS sets an \u201cillogical precedent.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the logic is anything associated with DHS is unacceptable, where does it stop?\u201d Beitler said. \u201cDo we remove TSA from Lehigh Valley International Airport? Do we decline FEMA assistance if a natural disaster or major emergency impacts Lehigh County?\u201d<\/p>\n

Beitler is serving a second term as a county commissioner. Holihan, who was elected district attorney in November 2023, \u200b\u200bwas censured last year by a unanimous vote <\/a>of GOP committee members for endorsing Siegel\u2019s candidacy for county executive.<\/p>\n

In addition to holding the top county executive office, Democrats have a 7-2 majority on the board of commissioners.<\/p>\n

Holihan stressed that he was not in office when the agreement was executed three years ago, adding that he had no purview over rental properties in the county. Instead the responsibility falls on Pinsley\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

Beitler pushed back on what he characterized as the idea of putting political ideology ahead of public safety<\/p>\n

\u201cRejecting an effective public safety partnership because of a broader ideological dispute is not good governance,\u201d he said. \u201cIts grandstanding. Putting politics ahead of public safety.\u201d<\/p>\n

DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two Lehigh County Republicans are pushing back on assertions by county officials that ICE occupied a county-owned property…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":93087,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120],"class_list":{"0":"post-93086","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"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93086","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=93086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93086\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}