ICE deployment could extend to more than 40 states
ICE plans to send about 330 people to cities in more than 40 states, including Puerto Rico. The initiative aims to increase immigration enforcement in both large cities and small towns.
- U.S. Representative Summer Lee and Representative Chris Deluzio conducted a surprise inspection of the Moshannon Valley Processing Center in central Pennsylvania.
- Detainees in immigration detention facilities reported experiencing neglect, abuse, and lack of adequate medical care.
- The Moshannon facility is the largest in the Northeast and is operated by Geo Group, a private, for-profit prison corporation.
- The facility has received complaints, with nearly 90 allegations of civil rights and human rights violations in fiscal year 2024.
On May 28, U.S. Reps. Summer Lee and Chris Deluzio made an unannounced tour of the Northeast’s largest immigrant detention facility, where the two Allegheny County Democrats spoke with detainees who say they are being neglected and abused, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported.
Most people at the Moshannon Valley Processing Center in central Pennsylvania have no criminal history and are classified as low-security detainees, said Deluzio, who lives in Fox Chapel and represents parts of Allegheny County and all of Beaver County.
Their visit comes about nine months after Lee, who lives in Swissvale and represents parts of Westmoreland and Allegheny counties, which include Pittsburgh, attempted to visit the facility in August 2025. At the time, she was denied because of a Department of Homeland Security policy that requires lawmakers to give seven days’ notice before visiting. The policy was blocked by a federal judge in Washington, D.C., earlier this year.
The visit also comes in the wake of reports of dangerous conditions inside the facility and a hunger strike over alleged protests that have resulted in the deaths of at least three detainees in the past three years.
Democrats face restrictions limiting communication with detainees at Central Pennsylvania ICE facility
The Post-Gazette reported that during the two hours they spent inside the Moshannon Valley Processing Center, Lee and Delzio were not allowed to be accompanied by staff to help translate. Cell phones were also prohibited from being brought into the facility.
Delzio said he was also prohibited from speaking to his Peruvian father, Randy Cordova Flores, who was arrested in January and is being held at the facility. Flores has a pending asylum claim, a valid work permit and no criminal record, the Post-Gazette reported.
Lee said many of the women at the facility were still able to talk to her during her visits, despite a lack of interpreters and the possibility of retaliation.
“I’ve heard that there was retaliation against women. I think the women came forward because they saw this as an opportunity,” Lee said. “Finally, two members of the Diet are here.”
Concerns about lack of proper medical care at Central PA Detention Center
The Post-Gazette reported that the detainees told Lee and Deluzio about a number of medical problems they were experiencing.
Representatives spoke to a pregnant woman who was bleeding and couldn’t determine the status of her pregnancy, a woman who said she was sexually assaulted, and another woman who said she didn’t feel like she was receiving proper care after surgery.
Allegations of abuse and neglect in Central PA ICE detention centers are not new.
The Moshannon Detention Center has been accused of neglect and abuse for years, with the first allegations dating back to President Joe Biden’s administration, the Post-Gazette reported.
In fiscal year 2024, detainees filed nearly 90 complaints of civil and human rights violations, alleging sexual abuse, medical neglect, and chronic solitary confinement.
More than 140 employees were fired from the facility, although the results of the investigation by the Department of Homeland Security’s Civil Rights and Freedoms Division have not been made public.
Just recently, the Shut Down Detention Campaign, a group working to close detention facilities in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, said at a press conference that detainee Izzy Alley has stage 3 kidney failure and is not receiving proper treatment at the Moshannon facility, the Post-Gazette reported.
Allie, who was detained in Orlando, Florida, underwent a medical examination in early 2026 and was found to have kidney failure. He was not told about the diagnosis for two months, and advocates said that as of May 21, he had not seen a doctor or been taken to the hospital to treat his symptoms.
Democrats want to cancel immigration enforcement funding
Deluzio and Lee’s visit to the Moshannon facility comes during a midterm election year in which Democrats are focused on reversing many of the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement actions across the country and are working to gain control of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Mr. Lee has called for the Moshannon facility to be closed, but Mr. Delzio has not said whether the facility should be closed, instead focusing on funding ICE.
“This is another cog in the machine,” he said of Moshannon, the Post-Gazette reported. “If we close this facility and don’t change anything else, that’s not going to change what Donald Trump’s administration is doing.”
Deluzio and Lee said that if Democrats retake the House, their top priority will be to undo the roughly $160 billion in immigration enforcement spending appropriated in 2025 through President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
“We need a complete overhaul of how we bring in immigrants, how we detain people, and how we treat these people,” Lee said. “We have massive cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and SNAP benefits, the biggest cuts we have ever seen, and yet we continue to fund ICE by billions of dollars.”
Where is the Central PA ICE detention facility? Who runs it?
The Moshannon Valley Processing Center is located in Center County, about 2 1/2 hours northeast of Pittsburgh. The detention center is the largest detention facility in the Northeast and is operated by Geo Group, a private, for-profit prison company based in Florida, the Tribune-Review reported.
The publicly traded company is ICE’s largest contractor, according to the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law.
Finch Walker is a Pittsburgh Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Please contact Walker at FWalker@usatodayco.com. Instagram: @finchwalker_. X: @_finchwalker.
