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A group of Pennsylvania counties that have detained immigrants for ICE billed the federal government more than $21 million in recent years.

<p>In light of recent developments regarding facilities expected to be utilized by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in Berks and Schuylkill counties, I want to provide an update on the actions my office has taken to engage with federal officials and elevate the concerns of our local communities. We felt it was critical to arrange meetings between DHS and local stakeholders before moving forward.</p>

The United States federal government is the world’s largest single purchaser of goods and services.

The Trump administration slashed protections for military members, but the military still touts benefits in recruitment.

The calls to 911 poured in from staff at Camp East Montana, the nation’s largest U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility, in its first months of operation in El Paso, Texas.

With construction frozen through mid-April and a hearing set, the fight over a $215 million federal detention facility in rural Maryland is heading toward its most consequential moment yet.

DHS and ICE are using a military contracting process to pick who will run detention centers, including those in Berks and Schuylkill Counties.

The county doesn’t have a formal agreement to cooperate with federal immigration officials, but it does honor detainers to temporarily hold people in jail.

Upper Bern Township has struggled for years to make a developer fix construction deficiencies of a warehouse now planned for an ICE detention center.