UPPER BERN TOWNSHIP — A week after news broke that the Trump administration plans to get rid of two warehouses in Pennsylvania, local and state officials say they are in the dark about what will happen next.
The Department of Homeland Security and ICE have not disputed reporting by the New York Times that federal officials intend to sell or give away seven of the 11 warehouses purchased over the past year as part of a sweeping, $38.3 billion plan to expand detention capacity. Efforts to “reengineer” empty warehouses as detention centers and processing facilities were paused following the departure of DHS Secretary Kristi Noem.
U.S. taxpayers paid nearly $207 million to obtain warehouses in Upper Bern Township and Tremont, Pennsylvania. Combined, the buildings provide nearly 2 million square feet of warehouse space, which is about 30 football fields. Earlier plans anticipated the buildings housing up to 1,500 people in Upper Bern and 7,500 people in Tremont.
Local and state officials were taken by surprise by those purchases, records obtained by Spotlight PA show. Similarly, they say they learned of ICE’s plans to offload the warehouses in the media and haven’t heard from federal authorities, a criticism that has been repeated for months.
Berks County Chair Christian Leinbach told Spotlight PA he hasn’t heard anything from DHS or other federal officials about the latest plans for the warehouses. Upper Bern officials declined to comment beyond saying they will monitor the situation at 3501 Mountain Road.
Local and state officials have raised a variety of concerns about ICE’s plans for the warehouses, from fears that they would overwhelm local water and sewage systems to the immediate loss of much-needed revenue. When the Trump administration purchased the warehouses, the sales took two tax revenue-generating properties off the rolls for the small municipalities of Upper Bern and Tremont.
The property in Upper Bern previously paid $597,110 annually to the Hamburg Area School District, $199,620 to Berks County, and $31,229 to the township. The property tax loss in the township is about 15% of the total collected.
The Tremont Township purchase took an estimated $1 million off the tax rolls, including a $222,574 loss for Schuylkill County, a $195,954 loss for the township, and a $555,630 loss for Pine Grove Area School District.
A CoStar market analysis of the closed deals by ICE found the federal agency is paying an 11% to 13% premium. It found ICE paid its highest premiums at two sites: Upper Bern, where the federal agency paid a 27% premium, and one in Social Circle, Georgia, where the agency paid a 33% markup.
A statement from DHS did not address what the plans are for the warehouses. A state source familiar with the matter expects the Pennsylvania properties to be sold.
Statements from U.S. Rep. Dan Meuser, a Republican whose district includes both warehouses, and Democratic U.S. Sen. John Fetterman did not contain any additional information about the administration’s plan.
Meuser credited the “due diligence” he, along with Berks and Schuylkill County commissioners, did to get answers from ICE when the warehouses were first purchased as influencing federal officials.
“This due diligence, and I give much credit to the county commissioners, was taken very seriously by DHS officials, and therefore, DHS is perhaps considering reevaluating the initial plan,” he said. “I remain in close contact with Secretary Mullin and look forward to providing a full update once a decision is made and we have details on how this will impact our community.”
Meuser told Spotlight PA on June 10 that he was in contact with Mullin and stressed the need for “definitive, solid information” because “tax bills are coming due.” When contacted this week, his office did not answer questions about why the representative didn’t have more information to share with the public about the plans.
Fetterman, meanwhile, applauded the federal administration’s decision not to move forward with turning the warehouses into detention facilities.
“I appreciate that Secretary Mullin recognized the negative impacts these facilities would have in Pennsylvania — including the direct threat to local economies and infrastructure — and cancelled these plans,” Fetterman said.
Berks County Commissioner Dante Santoni, a Democrat, heard the news through the media. He said he was happy that ICE would no longer use the warehouses for immigration detention, but is frustrated with the cost to Americans.
“All that money was spent, that's taxpayer dollars that are wasted, that who knows if they're going to be able to recoup that, whatever they're going to utilize those things for, whether they're going to sell them or not,” Santoni told Spotlight PA. “Happy that they decided not to open the facility in Berks County. Sad that there's a lot of taxpayer money wasted there.”
Residents and community organizers who oppose ICE’s plans say they are adjusting their priorities but don’t plan to take the agency at its word until the projects are officially canceled.
Sarah Chudnovsky, a community organizer in Berks County, said people are demanding Congress take back the mass deportation funding given to DHS and invest it in American communities.
“We know that organizing works, and this potential shift is the result of our communities’ advocacy. But the current reality is that these facilities are still owned by DHS,” she said. “We are going to keep going, and we call on Congress to sell the warehouses, take back the $240 billion given to DHS, and make a historic investment back into our communities for healthcare, affordable housing, safe drinking water, etc.”
ICE Out Upper Bern was also happy about the news, but Chair Deborah Miller said in a statement that community members are remaining vigilant as “only speculation exists about the future of the warehouse.”
“It was really gratifying to have (most of) the community come together and, with the help of environmental organizations and state government, quash this ill-planned project that would have brought with it catastrophic effects,” she said in a statement. “We’re still concerned with the loss of tax revenue and hope that a special committee sanctioned by Congress will be established to [follow] the money trail of the hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars spent/overspent by DHS on these warehouse-to-detention-center projects.”
Spotlight PA’s Hanna Holthaus contributed reporting.