Agency withdraws appeal after state denied water permits
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has given up on its plan to use two rural Pennsylvania warehouses to hold thousands of people, according to court documents filed Wednesday.
The plan had been held up by the state’s denial of drinking water and wastewater permits. An ICE lawyer filed paperwork Wednesday withdrawing the agency’s appeal of that denial. The state had raised concerns that the local water and wastewater services in rural areas of Berks and Schuylkill counties were inadequate to handle the thousands of inhabitants envisioned by the federal agency.
ICE did not say what, if anything, it would ultimately use the warehouses for. But it told the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection in a separate letter that it “has considered the final use it will make of this property, and it hereby informs DEP that it will not be using this property as a detention center.”