Berks immigrant detention center to close as federal government ends contract

The Berks County immigrant detention center will close early in the new year, officials confirmed Wednesday, its end the dream of legions of activists and protesters who have long criticized the facility as barbaric.

The federal government informed local leaders on Wednesday that it was ending its contract with the county as of Jan. 31. ICE officials in Philadelphia said they were gathering information about the closure and would provide details soon.

“The government may have, just finally, made the right decision to end immigration detention in Berks County,” said lawyer Bridget Cambria, who has long fought for immigrants held there as executive director of ALDEA — The People’s Justice Center in Reading.

The Reading Eagle was first to report the news on Wednesday.

“Today has been a day of tearful joy,” said Jasmine Rivera, a leader with the Philadelphia-based Shut Down Berks Coalition, which has long labored to close the facility. “We will take this joy and pursuit of freedom and ensure that is what happens for each and every woman in the Berks County detention center right now. We will make sure every single one of them is free come Jan. 31, and then we will celebrate some more.”

The 96-bed Berks lockup is operated by the county through a contract with federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement. It’s best known as having been one of three facilities in the country that confined immigrant families. It surrendered that role when it closed in early 2021, but reopened this year as a detention center for immigrant women.

“This victory feels like a dream,” said Liliana Perez, a CASA member who was detained at the center for a month. “I feel happy, content, and free. ... This detention center created a lot of suffering, and I am overjoyed to see it finally close.”

County officials met Wednesday with the management and staff at what is officially called the Berks County Residential Center to inform them of the federal government’s decision. About 60 people are employed there.

“We organized under Republicans and Democrats, through horrifying abuses and temporary closures, and today we are celebrating an enormous win for our communities,” said Flor Gonzalez, a Reading resident and member-leader of Make the Road PA. “This victory belongs to the immigrant families and most recently the immigrant women detained, who shared their stories of humanity, and to the organizers who never lost hope and never stopped fighting for immigrants to be free and together.”

Amnesty International has condemned Berks and similar facilities as inhumane and expensive, saying they “undermine our country’s long history as a beacon of hope for people seeking safety.”

For years, the facility has been the target of protests, vigils, lawsuits, and lobbying aimed at forcing its closure. No one held at Berks faces criminal charges, though the center essentially operates as a jail, confining people while their immigration cases go forward.

Activists note that under President Joe Biden the number of beds that are available to jail undocumented immigrants has soared in Pennsylvania. The repurposed Berks County facility was joined by a 1,876-bed private prison, the Moshannon Valley Processing Center in Clearfield County.

Advocates have maintained that all those being held at Berks could be instantly released to family members or sponsors in the community, and allowed to continue fighting their asylum claims from outside of confinement. Asylum is a legal means of staying in the country, and can be granted to people who could be harmed or killed if sent back to their homelands.