PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) \u2014 Lehigh County is evicting the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement from one of its government buildings, citing three years of unpaid rent, officials announced Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Lehigh County Controller Mark Pinsley, speaking at a press conference on Tuesday in Allentown, said ICE owed more than $115,000 in back rent.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to deport ICE,\u201d Pinsley said. \u201cIt\u2019s come to our attention that the Department of Homeland Security has been leasing office space in one of our government buildings for the last three years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pinsley, a Democrat who is also seeking a seat in the U.S. House, has called for the termination of all negotiations with DHS and the eviction of federal immigration enforcement agencies from county property.<\/p>\n
The controller said he has asked the county administration to notify DHS Secretary Kristi Noem.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re evicted. Pack your masks, tear gas, pepper balls, and hit the road,\u201d said Pinsley. \u201cI have also asked the administration to establish a database that allows citizens to report misdeeds of ICE.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lehigh County Executive Josh Siegel, also a Democrat, said the decision comes down to more than just finances. He said DHS\u2019 failure to pay rent as well as its reputation of \u201crecklessness, chaos, and public disorder\u201d warrant severing the county\u2019s ties with it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are not going to be a party to what I think is a deeply immoral, unjust and wildly unconstitutional deportation strategy,\u201d he said. \u201cLocal government should in no way at all be a part of assisting this administration in what I think is a campaign of cruelty and terror.\u201d<\/p>\n
Siegel believes ICE\u2019s presence in Lehigh County makes residents fearful and less safe.<\/p>\n
\u201cAllentown, in particular, is a majority minority city. We have a large Latino population. There are folks who are terrified to leave their homes, terrified to go to work, terrified to go to their houses of worship, people that are afraid to drop their kids off at day care facilities,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Siegel said the termination of the lease agreement is effective in 30 days.<\/p>\n
KYW Newsradio reached out to ICE for comment but has yet to hear back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) \u2014 Lehigh County is evicting the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":94073,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120],"class_list":{"0":"post-94072","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\/94072","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=94072"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94072\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}