No Skook Detention, for real?

No Skook Detention

— 5 min read
Share
No Skook Detention, for real?
Photo by Jon Tyson / Unsplash

On June 18, The New York Times reported that DHS plans to offload the Tremont and Upper Bern warehouses by selling them or transferring them to another federal agency. The warehouses won't become detention centers.

At least that's what we hope. Let's remember, this is the same DHS that ...

  • Spent $119 million on a warehouse, but didn't bother to check whether or not the water and sewer infrastructure in Tremont Township could handle the demands of a 7,500-bed detention center.
  • Bought the Upper Bern Township warehouse without realizing that it had never been permitted to connect to the municipal water supply.
  • Had only two virtual meetings with Schuylkill County officials in the six months since purchasing the Tremont warehouse.
  • Hasn't issued any payments in lieu of taxes to Tremont Township, Pine Grove Area School District, and Schuylkill County.
  • Is facing scrutiny from the DHS Office of the Inspector General for the warehouse purchases.

Forgive us if we're a bit skeptical.

On June 23, Senator Fetterman, who is the ranking member on the Senate Subcommittee on Border Management, Federal Workforce, and Regulatory Affairs, issued a statement confirming that the Tremont and Upper Bern warehouses will not become detention centers. In his statement, Fetterman thanked DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin for recognizing "the negative impacts these facilities would have in Pennsylvania, including the direct threat to local economies and infrastructure."

However, at yesterday's Commissioners Meeting, Commissioner Padora's language was more guarded. He didn't seem to believe that the information had been confirmed.

We're pretty sure the County was aware of Senator Fetterman's statement, so why does it seem like the County is operating on a different set of information? Your guess is as good as ours.

For more information, check out the following news stories:

What we'll be watching

We won't celebrate the end of this stupid saga until we see a few things. Other than evidence of an actual transfer or sale, we're waiting for payments in lieu of taxes (PILOTs) and an end to ICE's appeal before the EHB.

PILOTs

DHS still owes payments in lieu of taxes to Tremont Township, Pine Grove Area School District, and Schuylkill County. The lost tax revenue for the three taxing bodies is minuscule compared to the money that would have been required to upgrade local infrastructure for a detention center. Surely, DHS pays the 5-10 employees who show up to the Tremont warehouse on any given day. Why can't DHS cut a check to the County like they said they would?

The federal government bought this warehouse without communicating with local officials, took a massive property off the tax rolls, and let six months pass without PILOTs. The federal government needs to make this right.

ICE's appeal before the Environmental Hearing Board

ICE's appeal of the DEP orders blocking water and sewer at both sites is still sitting on the Environmental Hearing Board docket. Until and unless ICE withdraws this appeal, we won't feel confident that the detention center plan is truly dead.

In some positive news, the EHB granted environmental organizations petitions to intervene in the appeal. This gives the Delaware Riverkeeper Network and Green Amendments For The Generations a formal seat at the table. Check out the Delaware Riverkeeper Network's press release for more information. Schuylkill County is facing myriad environmental issues, and we're grateful for allies like the Delaware Riverkeeper Network and Green Amendments For The Generations in this fight.

If you're into reading legal opinions, the EHB's Opinion and Order on Petitions to Intervene has some gems like this:

ICE’s varied and rather ambiguous descriptions of its appeal make it unclear what the true scope of the appeal actually is—whether that is using water and/or sewer at the facilities at levels “which have already been approved” or “preliminarily authorized” or at levels “utilized” by prior owners or for “reasonable use” of water and/or sewer “consistent with use permitted to prior property owners.” All of these different formulations are notably unspecific. Among other things, we do not know what “reasonable use” means. ICE never defines it in its filings. ICE has not offered anything specific regarding its requested relief or quantified it in any way, such as saying it seeks to amend the orders so it can use x gallons of water per day and generate y gallons of sewage at a certain facility.

It seems like ICE's legal strategy is on par with its property acquisition strategy.

A side tangent on 💩

Typically, there are several employees' cars parked at the Tremont warehouse at any given time. (What are these people doing? Who knows.) Using the Tremont warehouse's sewer and water system is against PA DEP's administrative orders, and ICE tells PA DEP that they're definitely not using that green port-a-potty in the parking lot, because that would also violate the administrative orders.

ICE told DEP that the port-a-potty was preemptively placed there by the port-a-potty company to hopefully get business once the facility opened. (Huh?) The port-a-potty also magically relocated itself to a different part of the parking lot in the past few weeks.

Did DHS train super-agents that don't need to use the restroom? Or are they following Leave No Trace principles?

Who is this mysterious port-a-potty company that does marketing by placing portable toilets in random parking lots without permission?

What's next

Check out this great piece in Bloomberg Businessweek that covers our fight here in Schuylkill County: ICE's Warehouse Jails Could Overwhelm the Towns Forced to Accept Them by Fola Akinnibi. Fola and his colleagues have been covering the warehouse detention story from the beginning, and we're grateful for the comprehensive article.

Call our representatives and ask for the payments in lieu of taxes.

Here's what you can say:

"Six months after DHS bought the Tremont warehouse, our township, our school district, and our county are still out nearly a million dollars a year in tax revenue. The detention center is canceled. Please help us secure the payments in lieu of taxes DHS verbally agreed to, until that building is back on the tax rolls."

  • Rep. Dan Meuser: 202-225-6511
  • Sen. Dave McCormick: 202-224-6324
  • Sen. John Fetterman: 202-224-4254

There's light at the end of the tunnel, but we still need to make sure that our schools and our neighbors aren't left holding the bill.

Read more