State and local officials are right to stand against expanding ICE detention centers | Editorial
Leaders should push back against detention facilities proposed by a Trump administration that has shown open contempt for the law and human rights.
Immigrants in custody under the Trump administration have been denied medical care, face dangerous detention conditions, and have died in the highest numbers in two decades, according to a letter sent to Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem by a group of Democratic senators.
As more and more immigrants are arrested, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement looks to vastly expand its detention capabilities — including in Pennsylvania and New Jersey — cases of abuse and death will only grow.
This is a moral wrong that violates America’s constitutional protections.
State and local leaders should vigorously push back against new detention facilities proposed by a federal government that has shown open contempt for the law in pursuit of the president’s cruel and inhumane mass deportation policies.
Contrary to what Donald Trump promised, most of the immigrants being detained are not hardened criminals or the “worst of the worst.” Fewer than 14% of people arrested by ICE in 2025 had any charges or convictions for violent offenses. Immigrants with no criminal record at all now make up the largest group in detention.
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To be sure, immigration detention has a long history of abuse, with complaints about difficult living conditions, substandard medical care, and an opaque system leading to limited accountability when immigrants die in custody.
Even when changes are promised, the problem has persisted.
“Detention centers are not safe, abuses are widespread and detention facilities consistently fail to meet basic minimum standards,” wrote Mary Small, policy director for the Detention Watch Network, in 2015. “The Obama administration’s attempts at reforming the immigration detention system have failed.”
More than a decade later, that failure will likely compound as ICE, flush with $45 billion from the GOP-controlled Congress and zero accountability from the White House, ramps up not only the scale, but also the callousness of its operations.
The conditions inside detention centers are bleak, even more so for the most vulnerable populations. ProPublica recently told the stories of children being held at the ICE facility in Dilley, Texas. Their testimony is heartbreaking.
“Since I got to this Center all you will feel is sadness and mostly depression,” one child wrote. Another said that “the workers treat the residents unhumanly, verbally and I don’t want to imging how they would act if they where unsupervised.”
A 9-year-old put it plainly, writing, “I am not happy, please get me out of here.”
Governors are rightfully objecting to the growth of ICE detention centers in their states. Both Gov. Josh Shapiro and New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill have taken a strong stance in opposition. Local communities and officials are also fighting back.
ICE plans to convert warehouses to detention centers in Upper Bern Township in Berks County, Tremont Township in Schuylkill County, and in Roxbury, a municipality in New Jersey’s Sussex County. Bucks County commissioners, who approved a bipartisan resolution against the detention centers, said the federal government may be looking to buy properties in Bensalem Township and Middletown Township.
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Shapiro has pledged to use every tool at his disposal to block the plans in Pennsylvania. Roxbury’s mayor, Republican Shawn Potillo, has also vowed to work against the proposed facility. Sherrill has promised to explore new state taxes in her own efforts to discourage the growth of detention centers.
These statements are a step in the right direction. If officials are seeking examples of effective action, they can look to New Hampshire, where local opposition helped kill a plan for a new ICE facility, or to the small conservative town of Social Circle, Ga., which refused to turn on water access for an ICE detention center.
In a letter to Homeland Security’s Noem, Sherrill laid out the case against ICE in no uncertain terms.
“DHS’ treatment of human beings — citizen and noncitizen alike — reflects a chilling disregard for both human life and the rule of law,” Sherill wrote. “New Jersey will not be complicit in this.”
No one who values human rights should.