County of Bucks (Credit: LevittownNow)
The Bucks County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously Wednesday to approve a resolution opposing the use of industrial warehouses in the county as federal immigration detention facilities.
Adopted during the board’s regular public meeting, the resolution asserts that while the county continues to follow state and federal law and cooperate with law enforcement agencies, it does not support the conversion of warehouses into facilities to house Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees.
The action comes amid reports that ICE has sought to purchase or lease industrial warehouse space nationwide, including in Pennsylvania, to expand detention capacity.
“While there’s no doubt some legal or zoning reasons why this is not a good idea, we have a moral imperative to oppose the treatment of people that we’re seeing play out around the country,” said Commissioner Chair Diane Ellis-Marseglia. “We see what’s happening in the streets, and we read fragments of what’s happening behind closed doors. Today’s resolution is this Board making clear that we will not be tolerating that activity here.”
The resolution reaffirms that Bucks County “follows all state and federal laws regarding cooperation with law enforcement, including with United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (‘ICE’) and the Department of Homeland Security (‘DHS’).” However, it also references “recent reports from human rights organizations reveal alarming conditions of confinement and repeated instances of coercion, physical force, and threats against immigrants facing third-country deportations.”
Commissioner Gene DiGirolamo said the county’s stance is clear.
“Bucks County is not a county that needs or wants a detention facility,” DiGirolamo said. “I want it to be perfectly clear – whether it’s right now, or a month, a year from now – we do not want, and the Commissioners are opposed to, a detention facility for ICE here in Bucks County.”
The resolution notes that ICE’s efforts to lease or purchase warehouse space have “included multiple warehouses in Bucks County and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania” and states that the county opposes “the use of warehouses or similar industrial facilities not intended for human occupancy as facilities to hold, jail, detain, house or otherwise store human beings.”
Commissioner Vice Chair Bob Harvie expanded on the broader implications.
“I agree, obviously, with Commissioner DiGirolamo that this county is no place for these kinds of facilities, but I’ll expand that – this country is no place for these kinds of facilities,” Harvie said, drawing comparisons to the internment of Japanese-Americans and some Italian-born residents during World War II. “At some point we have to think back to who we are as a country and stand up for what’s right. This is doing that.”
Beyond humanitarian concerns, the resolution outlines practical and legal objections, warning that warehouse conversions could conflict with local land use ordinances and strain infrastructure. It states that such facilities, “being hastily erected in areas and structures not intended for human occupation, would place unanticipated demands upon water and sewer systems, creating hazards to public health, as well as heaping new strain upon public safety services.”
The resolution also references requirements under the federal Clean Water Act and Pennsylvania’s Sewage Facilities Act, noting that no building may be occupied or connected to municipal sewage systems without proper permitting and compliance.
Gov. Josh Shapiro previously raised similar concerns in a Feb. 12 letter to the Department of Homeland Security, which the commissioners cited in their action.
In closing, the resolution states that converting warehouses into detention centers “does not align with the goals or shared values of equity, sustainability, resilience, and health and well-being of the people of the County of Bucks.”
The measure was adopted unanimously.
