U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is planning to offload its two warehouse properties in Pennsylvania and another in New Jersey — bought for a total of more than $336 million — that were previously purchased to further support President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda.
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In total, ICE is planning to disown seven warehouses across the country by either handing the properties off to other federal agencies or selling them, the New York Times reported.
The agency will continue to pursue spaces in Texas, Arizona, and Maryland.
The move signifies a notable shift in priorities within the Department of Homeland Security under Secretary Markwayne Mullin — tapped to lead the department after the abrupt firing of former Secretary Kristi Noem, whose costly warehouse purchases were a pillar of her highly controversial tenure carrying out Trump’s escalating immigration enforcement agenda.
In contrast, Mullin, the Times reported, wants DHS to keep a lower profile.
It remains unclear why DHS is aiming to get rid of some sites while planning to keep others. A spokesperson for the department touted the Trump administration’s immigration agenda and said that “DHS is moving swiftly to utilize EXISTING detention space with our state and county partners.”
ICE’s new course would be a win for officials in Pennsylvania and New Jersey who have railed against the agency’s plans to use the warehouses as sites for the mass detention of immigrants, citing harmful community impact.
A source close to Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s administration confirmed to the Inquirer Friday that they have heard discussions about ICE’s plans to offload the Pennsylvania sites.
Shapiro penned a letter to Noem earlier this year saying that he would “aggressively pursue every option” to prevent the ICE warehouses that were slated for Berks and Schuylkill Counties.
In the February letter, he questioned the legality of the facilities, highlighted possible harmful environmental impacts, and slammed the department’s immigration enforcement tactics. Cabinet secretaries and the state’s Department of Environmental Protection also issued five administrative orders in March that would prevent the warehouses from using local water and sewage unless DHS complied with state and federal regulations.
U.S. Sen. John Fetterman (D, Pa.), who backed Mullin’s nomination, has voiced his opposition to the warehouse centers in an April letter to the secretary.
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Public records indicate, in February, the Department of Homeland Security purchased a property in Hamburg in Berks County for $87.4 million and a property in Tremont in Schuylkill County for $119.5 million.
In New Jersey, the agency purchased a property in Roxbury Township in Morris County for $129.3 million, records show.
ICE has been hit with several lawsuits from across the country, including in New Jersey, questioning the environmental and community impacts of the warehouses.
N.J.Gov. Mikie Sherrill and Attorney General Jennifer Davenport filed a joint lawsuit with Roxbury Township, where the proposed ICE warehouse would be located, against ICE and DHS in March.
On Thursday, Sherrill and Davenport said in a statement: “DHS’s plans were always illegal: the Roxbury warehouse is a logistics center fit for packages, not thousands of people, and did nothing to make New Jersey safer.”
Discussions surrounding ICE warehouses also spurred local officials in the Philadelphia region to publicly voice their concerns with such sites.
In Bucks County, commissioners unanimously passed a resolution in February opposing any immigration detention or processing facilities. U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R., Pa.), who represents Bucks County and a sliver of Montgomery County, also said he received assurances from the federal government that no ICE warehouses were planned in his district.
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Staff writer and editor Stephen Stirling contributed to this article.