ICE Dropped Its Warehouse Detention Plan. Local Districts Now Foot the Bill.
ICE has effectively abandoned plans to convert two Pennsylvania warehouses into large-scale immigration detention centers, leaving six local taxing districts with properties they can no longer tax. The federal government has not committed to replacing that lost revenue.
The two sites are a former Big Lots warehouse in Tremont Township, Schuylkill County, and a second property in Upper Bern Township, Berks County. Together, they were slated to house as many as 7,500 detainees. ICE acquired the properties, making them tax-exempt. Now that detention plans appear shelved, communities are left holding the loss.
$1.6 million in combined annual tax revenue lost across six local taxing districts in Schuylkill and Berks counties, according to local officials
That figure affects school districts, municipalities, and county governments that built their budgets around those properties being taxable. Pine Grove Area School Board Treasurer Dave Frew said bluntly: “I don’t want to sound pessimistic, but if they mothball it, I don’t think we’re going to get anything.”
Federal Law Blocks Most Compensation Paths
The standard mechanism for compensating local governments for tax-exempt federal land is called Payment in Lieu of Taxes, or PILT. The program is administered by the Department of the Interior and is tied to what federal statute calls “entitlement lands,” mainly national parks, forests, and wildlife refuges.
DHS and ICE do not qualify. The National Association of Counties has confirmed that the Department of Homeland Security is not authorized to execute PILT agreements. Only Congress can change that, and it has not done so.
Berks County officials have closed the door on PILT entirely. County spokesman Jonathan Heintzman said the sites are excluded from PILT eligibility because of their type. Schuylkill County officials have a sliver more hope: federal officials mentioned a possible three-year compensation agreement during a conference call, according to County Commissioner Chairman Larry Padora. No agreement has been signed.
The Department of the Interior distributed more than $644 million in PILT payments nationally last year. None of that framework currently applies to ICE-held properties.
The most realistic outcome for local officials may be a federal sale of the properties, which would restore them to the tax rolls. But that depends entirely on what ICE and DHS decide to do with sites they have given no clear timeline for.
What You Can Do Now
-
Call your U.S. representative at (202) 225-3121 and ask them to support expanding PILT eligibility to include DHS-held properties. Tell them six Pennsylvania taxing districts are losing $1.6 million a year with no federal remedy available under current law.
-
Contact your U.S. senators at (202) 224-3121 and ask them to include DHS properties in PILT reform legislation. The National Association of Counties has lobbied for this change for years; congressional action is the only path to a fix.
-
Contact the Schuylkill County Board of Commissioners at (570) 628-1202 and ask for a public update on the status of the three-year compensation agreement federal officials mentioned. No agreement has been signed, and the clock is running on community budgets.
-
Find your state legislators at legis.state.pa.us and ask them to pressure Pennsylvania’s congressional delegation to act. School districts in the Pine Grove Area are directly affected, and state lawmakers can amplify the call.