Only months after ICE acquired two large properties in Berks and Schuylkill counties to create immigration detention centers, it is planning to divest itself of them, according to a report in The New York Times.
The warehouse facilities in Pennsylvania are among seven properties across the country that were purchased by the U.S. government to fulfill President Trump’s mass immigration removal efforts and will now be sold or given away to other federal agencies, the Times reported.
The warehouse facilities in the Tremont and Hamburg areas immediately became lightning rods for controversy in the communities over the potential loss of property tax revenue, increased traffic and environmental concerns.
Some, like state Sen. Judy Schwank, D-Berks County, voiced concerns about the treatment of detainees in existing ICE facilities.
“My concern is, knowing the track record of some of these other facilities located throughout the country, it’s not good,” she told Spotlight PA in February. “I don’t necessarily want to see something like that being housed in our county.”
The Hamburg-area property in Upper Bern Township was known as the Hamburg Logistics Center and, before that, was the site of the Mountain Springs arena. It was purchased in February for $87.4 million, according to reporting by Spotlight PA, and was slated to have 1,500 beds.
ICE also purchased a 1.3-million-square-foot former Big Lots warehouse in Schuylkill County for $119.5 million that would hold up to 7,500 people.
In an interview with Spotlight PA in February, a spokesperson for ICE declined to comment on the Berks County real estate transaction but praised the agency’s targeting of “vicious criminals.”
“Thanks to the One Big Beautiful Bill, ICE has new funding to expand detention space to keep these criminals off American streets before they are removed for good from our communities,” the spokesperson said.
The properties are among 11 purchased by the U.S. government for detention centers at a cost of $1 billion.