What’s next as the Berks immigrant detention center prepares to close in January

Officials confirmed in late November that the Berks County detention center will close Jan. 31. This week members of the Shut Down Berks Coalition, Juntos, CASA, and other advocate groups mounted a vigil outside the center and blitzed the White House and federal agencies with phone calls, pressing their demands to release all those held at the facility. They count the coming closure as a big win, but the futures of those being held there are uncertain. Here’s where events may be headed — and why:

What exactly is the Berks detention center? It’s a 96-bed lockup, formally called the Berks County Residential Center, set 66 miles northwest of Philadelphia in Leesport. It’s been operated by the county through a contract with ICE, which holds undocumented immigrants there as their cases go through Immigration Court. It’s best known as having been one of three facilities in the country that confined immigrant families — mothers, fathers, and children. That role ended when Berks closed in early 2021, but it reopened this year as a detention center for immigrant women. Many there are seeking asylum, a legal means of staying in the United States for those who face persecution in their homelands.

» READ MORE: Berks immigrant detention center to close as federal government ends contract

Why is Berks closing? ICE is letting its contract expire, saying it can better spend taxpayer money on facilities “offering better performance, efficiency, and economy of scale.” The center has long been the target of protests, lawsuits, and actions aimed at forcing its closure, and Sen. Bob Casey and other elected officials have pressed the federal government over the treatment of people there. He calls its closing long overdue.

How many women are held, and what happens to them when Berks closes? This is the big, outstanding question of the moment. Currently about 40 women are confined at Berks, and ICE says it expects their legal cases will conclude before the center closes. But — and it’s a big but — the women whose cases remain open will be transferred to other detention centers. When the York County Prison stopped holding immigrants last year, some detainees were sent to facilities as far away as Louisiana and Florida.

So someone held at Berks could be sent hundreds of miles, even if they have family in Pennsylvania? Yes. ICE officials say they know that detainees may have community ties and support networks in the areas where they’re being held, and they consider that when transferring people to new facilities. But the ICE network is vast, confining about 30,000 people around the United States, and transfers can be common.

» READ MORE: Immigration activists sue Berks commissioners to learn plans for ICE detention center

Why have activists fought so hard to close Berks? Amnesty International and other watchdog groups have condemned Berks and similar facilities as inhumane and expensive. In 2019 and 2020, for instance, Berks confined a 7-year-old Guatemalan girl, Maddie, for 250 days — among the records for children. Authorities offered to release the girl to her mother but would not free her father, which the family’s lawyers said amounted to a different form of family separation. Maddie and her father eventually were freed, together, in March 2020, after a key ruling by a federal judge in Washington, D.C.

Why are people held at Berks at all? ICE says it confines foreign nationals to be sure they attend their immigration hearings and so that, if necessary, they can be readily deported. Some are subject to mandatory detention under the law, and the agency has deemed others to be public-safety or flight risks, according to ICE. Immigration advocates argue that nearly everyone could be released to family members or community sponsors — and would still show up for court. Last year an American Immigration Council study of removal proceedings found that immigrants attended their hearings 83% of the time. And those who failed to attend often had not received a hearing notice or could not physically travel to court.

What happens to the building itself? No one yet knows. The activists who have called for its closure say it should be turned into something that serves and helps the local community, perhaps a center to treat addiction or another type of health facility.

Does the closing of Berks spell the end of immigrant detention in Pennsylvania? Hardly. ICE continues to hold immigrants at facilities in Clinton County and Pike County — and at the Moshannon Valley Processing Center, a massive 1,876-bed private prison in Clearfield County. Advocates note that, even as Berks closes, the number of beds available to jail immigrants has soared in Pennsylvania under President Joe Biden.