In Pike County, housing alleged federal immigration law violators keeps property taxes down.
IMMIGRATION: AMERICAN DREAM OR NIGHTMARE?
This three-day WVIA News series focuses on the effects of federal immigration policy on Northeast and Central Pennsylvania.
● SATURDAY: The nation's clash over immigration policy is felt in region. Also: 287(g) agreements explained.
● SUNDAY: A young Scranton mother faces future after husband was deported.
● TODAY: Planned Pa. detention centers, including one in Schuylkill County, raise concerns. Also: Pike County finds ICE detentions lucrative.
● KEYSTONE EDITION BROADCAST: Watch our panel discussion at 7 p.m. Monday, May 11, on WVIA-TV.
For about 30 years, U.S. immigration agents have placed detainees in the county prison, an arrangement that pours millions of dollars a year into county accounts.
The county expects to net $13,619,063 this year, according to the county budget. The county received $6,316,546 in 2024 and $9,527,268 in 2025, a county official said in an email.
The county plans to use the additional money to rebuild its financial reserves, depleted during the COVID-19 pandemic, the county commissioners said.
Arrangement benefits taxpayers
The commissioners said counties rely almost exclusively on property taxes, so the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement payments reduce pressure to raise taxes, often a concern of home and business owners.
“You know, people say, ‘Oh, you should identify other revenue sources.’ Well, unless somebody knows something different, I know there's only one other revenue source, and that's the taxpayer, right?” Osterberg said.
The county opened the 87,500-square-foot Pike County Correctional Facility in 1995 on 268 acres in Blooming Grove Twp., according to the county website.
“Our direct supervision 375-bed facility houses both male and female offenders,” the website says.
The county does not house female ICE detainees.
The arrangement's history
The county relied on a three-cell jail until 1995 and sometimes sent inmates elsewhere, Osterberg said. Pike and Wayne County officials discussed a combined prison, but that never happened.
“So, Pike built their own jail of that size that you see up there,” Osterberg said.
Commissioner Ron Schmalze said the county, at the time, built a larger prison, anticipating Pike’s ongoing population surge would require one someday.
“We're continuing to be the fastest growing county in the states,” Schmalzle said.
The prison has its own sewage treatment plant, but at first had so few inmates it didn’t produce enough sewage for the plant to operate properly.
“When they realized they were building this thing too big, they entered into an agreement to 'house illegal' immigrants coming into the country,” Osterberg said.
ICE has offices in the building, too.
“I just want to be clear before you, we operate the correctional facility,” Osterberg said. “There are no federal people working inside the facility, guarding or taking care of the everyday operation ... They're (ICE agents are) in and out of the building because they have to deal with their detainees, but just on that, not on actual operations, not supervision.”
The prison was housing about 250 ICE detainees and 107 local inmates on the day of WVIA's interview with the commissioners, Osterberg said.
A better contract
Six years ago, the county signed a contract guaranteeing ICE access to up to 100 beds a day at $120 per detainee per day. Recently, the county signed a new two-year contract guaranteeing ICE up to 285 beds a day at $178 per inmate per day. The new contract will mean the county gets paid for reserving beds regardless of whether ICE uses them.
“Our argument through the years has been since we have to staff it and maintain those beds and be ready to do that number,” Schmalzle said. “We should be paid for that number. So, the new contract reflects that.”
Osterberg said the county hasn’t faced much pushback on housing ICE detainees.
“The first four years, when I was elected in (20)11, no one was saying anything, and we were still housing a lot of detainees,” he said. “The next four years after that, we had people coming in here and saying, ‘Oh, you shouldn't be doing this.’ We gave them tours of the building. And then the next four years, we heard nothing. And now, this four years, we're hearing it again, but not a whole lot, I have to be honest.”
The prison’s staff “run an incredible facility” with no abuse or other major problems, Osterberg said.
“And I think the federal government realizes that,” he said. “Otherwise, they would say to us, ‘Hey, Pike, you run a really horrible operation, we're out of here,’ because they could, right? But they're not. They're looking to work with us even more.”
Commissioner Christa Caceres, whose husband is Hispanic, said she hears concerns now and then, but the county doesn't run into problems like "what you see on television."
"We've been doing this as a county for just over three decades without incident,” Caceres said.
She invited people to take tours.
“I don't know a better place - unfortunately, in worst- case scenario - to have to be housed,” she said.
Osterberg said ICE will always need room to house people who are here illegally.
“It's not like it's all of a sudden just started yesterday or just started in the last 20 years," he said. "It's been going on probably since 1776. You know, there's always going to be a need for it, and we have proven to them that we run a very, very well-oiled machine.”
