An angry Gov. Josh Shapiro pledges to block ICE detention centers in Pa.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro met with leaders in Berks and Schuylkill counties Thursday as those communities confront the planned federal conversion of two warehouses into ICE detention centers, pledging to do everything possible to block the Trump administration’s plans in the state.

Shapiro, a Democrat who first opposed the potential detention centers earlier this month, cited concerns over the impact on local economies, water resources, and residents’ quality of life.

Government warehouse purchases around the country, undertaken as part of a massive ICE expansion of detention capability, have sparked anger, lawsuits, and in one place, a suspected arson, after someone attempted to burn down a property in Arizona.

“I’m even more determined to do everything in my power to stop these facilities,” Shapiro said.

He spoke on the same day as New Jersey’s two Democratic senators, Andy Kim and Cory Booker, introduced legislation to ban the federal government from buying or converting warehouses for immigrant detention or processing.

“People across the country are standing up against this inhumanity, and Congress needs to stand with them,” Kim said in a statement.

And just last week Bucks County officials said that federal representatives had sought to explore the purchase of warehouses in Bensalem and Middletown townships.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement has purchased two Pennsylvania warehouses this year ― one in Upper Bern Township, in northern Berks County, and another in Tremont Township, in Schuylkill County — drawing the ire of concerned residents.

Shapiro offered few details on how the state government could block the facilities, citing possible legal or regulatory action.

The governor, who is running for reelection, has been increasingly vocal in his opposition to ICE tactics even as his administration retains some cooperation with the agency. Earlier this month Shapiro wrote a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem promising to “aggressively pursue every option” to block the detention centers from opening in Pennsylvania.

Expanding warehouses

The ICE effort to buy and repurpose warehouses as detention centers has quickly become one of the most contentious issues in immigration.

The ability to confine and process huge numbers of immigrants is essential to President Donald Trump’s plan to carry out an unprecedented deportation campaign. The number of people currently held has already reached historic highs, topping 70,000 this year, and the administration says it needs more space.

But as Trump’s plan has become public, opposition has been both immediate and fierce. Immigrant advocates call the warehouses “concentration camps,” and question how buildings that were built to store consumer and industrial goods can safely and humanely hold thousands of people.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement expects to spend $38.3 billion to buy and retrofit warehouses around the nation.

Sixteen buildings would be converted into regional processing centers, each holding 1,000 to 1,500 immigrants. An additional eight detention centers would hold 7,000 to 10,000 detainees and serve as primary sites for deportations.

Shapiro on Thursday sought to send a clear signal to federal officials that he would fight any facilities in Pennsylvania. Following his press conference, Shapiro posted a video to Twitter declaring that Noem “will hear us in Pennsylvania.”

Standing outside the proposed facility location in Berks County, Shapiro outlined the impact detention facilities would have on local communities ― including pollution in Berks County and draining of water resources in Schuylkill Counties.

“I’m pissed,” Shapiro said. “And I’m not going to allow this to happen.”

“If you continue to go forward here you will face legal and regulatory consequences,” he warned federal officials.

Bucks County commissioners said earlier this month that the federal government recently approached warehouse owners in Bensalem Township and Middletown Township. Neither owner is going forward with a sale, they said.

In Maryland, Democratic Attorney General Anthony Brown has sued the Trump administration to try to stop plans to hold 1,500 immigrants in a warehouse near Williamsport, about eight miles south of the Pennsylvania border.

Brown and Maryland Democratic Gov. Wes Moore say the project is unlawful, going forward without an environmental review or public input.

ICE purchased the warehouse for $102.4 million in January, the property built as a commercial facility with 825,620 square feet of warehouse space, minimal office facilities, four toilets and two water fountains, according to the attorney general.

The 1,500 immigrants held there would nearly equal the population of Williamsport, home to about 2,000 people.

Farther south, in Wilson County, Tenn., ICE is examining a two-building complex that would hold a combined 14,000 to 16,000 immigrants, by far the largest immigration detention center in the country, according to Project Salt Box, a Baltimore-based group that tracks ICE warehouse activity.

This month in Surprise, Ariz., someone tried to burn down a warehouse that ICE bought to turn into a 1,500-bed detention center, the fire quickly extinguished by the interior sprinkler system, the Arizona Mirror reported, quoting federal officials.

The plan to create a fixed, large-scale network of converted warehouses represents a radical new approach to immigration detention.

Historically, the American Immigration Council noted, ICE’s detention funding has gone almost entirely to contract providers, the private prison companies and state and local governments who lease facilities to the agency. As of February 2025, ICE owned only 10 of the 220 facilities being used to detain immigrants, the council said.

Now ICE seeks to reengineer a detention system that was not centrally planned, but emerged over decades as Congress gradually increased agency funding, the council said.

ICE currently operates five detention facilities in Pennsylvania, including the 1,876-bed Moshannon Valley Processing Center, the largest detention center in the northeast. Two more are located in New Jersey, in Elizabeth and Newark, and the Trump administration has been exploring adding a third at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst.