Advocates call on Clearfield County commissioners to vote ‘no’ on ICE contract extension

Immigration rights advocates say there’s evidence the federal government plans to buy a privately owned and operated detention center in Clearfield County and are calling on Pennsylvania elected leaders to act.

The Moshannon Valley Processing Center in Decatur Township is owned by The GEO Group, a for-profit prison company that operates nearly two-dozen immigration detention centers around the country. 

It has beds for about 1,800 people and has been the subject of scrutiny by members of Congress amid detainee deaths and complaints about physical and psychological abuse, a lack of adequate access to health care, and retaliation for standing up against mistreatment.

The GEO Group operates Moshannon Valley under an agreement with Clearfield County, in which the local government serves as a pass-through for more than $5 million a month to skirt a ban on federal agencies contracting with private prison operators.

Jasmine Rivera, executive director of the Pennsylvania Immigration Coalition, called on the Clearfield County board of commissioners Thursday to reject a request from ICE to extend its current contract, which expires Sept. 28. The board is expected to consider the request Tuesday.

“We need Clearfield to stand up for justice and to vote no,” Rivera said in a video call with reporters. “They should not be making it easier for The Geo Group and the Department of Homeland Security to continue on with these plans.”

Commissioners Tim Winters, John Sobel and Dave Glass did not respond to a message Thursday.

Tim Smith, who lives in Osceola Mills and sued the county in 2021 to stop the center from opening, said the county has a remarkable history of standing up for the oppressed and marginalized. Smith noted his hometown was named for an indigenous chief by the eastern European immigrants who settled it.

“That spirit of standing up for human dignity is woven into the foundation and DNA of this community,” he said, adding that the county has a choice about its future in its decision about the contract.

“We do not have to choose an economic future that depends on the confinement of human beings,” Smith said. 

During the news conference, speakers also told the stories of detainees at Moshannon from Azerbaijan, Mexico, and Haiti who have been held at the center for months, experiencing isolation, chronic illness and mental health struggles. 

Rivera noted the request to extend the contract comes as the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is seeking proposals for turnkey detention sites including one in its “Philadelphia Area of Responsibility. According to ICE, that includes all of Pennsylvania, Delaware and West Virginia.

In a request for proposals issued last month, DHS said it intends to award 10-year contracts for “the provision of comprehensive detention facility services, transportation services, food services, operations and maintenance services” for ICE detainees in the custody of its Enforcement and Removal Operations branch.

“The RFP is the next step in building a massive, intractable detention system, a detention system that includes Moshannon here in Pennsylvania, but many other turnkey facilities across the country,” Rivera said.

Moshannon Valley opened as a privately run federal prison in 2006 and closed in March 2021 after President Joe Biden signed an executive order barring new contracts with private prison companies. It reopened later that year as an ICE facility operated under contract by The GEO Group.

ICE did not respond to an email seeking comment on its plans for Moshannon Valley.

The move toward buying its own facilities comes shortly after DHS abandoned plans to convert vacant warehouses in Pennsylvania and elsewhere into detention centers. 

Rivera noted that DHS has already bought several private detention facilities from Tennessee-based CoreCivic, including two in California, one in Kansas and one in Minnesota, according to the company.

The GEO Group’s CEO George C. Zoley said in an earnings call in August that the company is in “an active process” for the sale of several of its facilities subject to an agreement on price and the company’s continued management of the facilities under long-term contracts.

“We believe we have two types of assets: the buildings and the businesses of providing support services,” Zoley said. “We are pursuing a potential sale of the buildings, but we want to retain the business.”

Rivera noted any sale would include both the facility buildings and land, which includes several undeveloped acres that could be used to build additional housing for the facility. She said advocates believe the contract extension is needed to allow The GEO Group and DHS to complete their due diligence before a sale. 

“This cements private ICE detention in Pennsylvania for another decade, with the only decision makers, the only oversight coming from this federal government,” she said.

Federal ownership of Moshannon Valley would also limit efforts by Pennsylvania to regulate the facility as some other states have taken steps to inspect immigration detention centers. And because of the type of contract DHS is offering, the amount it pays The GEO Group could grow.

“DHS will be able to add more services to the contract without going through any additional contract steps,” Rivera said.