PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Bucks County Commissioners unanimously passed a resolution on Wednesday opposing the use of warehouses as detention centers, in response to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s recent efforts to obtain more detention space.
Earlier this month, ICE purchased a warehouse in Berks County, which it reportedly plans to convert into a detention center.
Bucks County Commissioner Vice Chair Bob Harvie said officials received reports this past weekend of ICE trying to buy property in Bucks.
“ICE had attempted to get a warehouse in Bensalem, and the owner of that property refused to engage,” he said. “This is something that not only our community doesn’t want, but no community wants.”
Whether there, or in Middletown Township — which Harvie said ICE also checked out — officials said municipal rights granted by the Clean Water Act will help them enforce the resolution. According to commissioners, federal agencies would have to get local permits to connect to the sewage system.
In any case, Harvie said using warehouses to hold human beings is inhumane. “There’s evidence of not only Constitutional violations, but just violations of basic human rights in these facilities,” he said, “and we’re not having that here in Bucks County.”
Officials did make clear, though, that they support the administration’s purported goal of deporting undocumented immigrants who commit violent crimes — and that Bucks is not a sanctuary county. Still, commissioners invoked a moral imperative behind their resolution.
“We need to treat human beings like human beings, and that’s unfortunately not being done enough by this administration,” said Harvie.
KYW Newsradio has reached out to ICE for comment, but has not heard back.