March 06, 2026
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A resolution adopted in Montgomery County will prevent U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials from using county-owned property for detention centers, staging areas, processing and other operations. Above, the county headquarters in Norristown.
Montgomery County commissioners adopted a resolution Thursday prohibiting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from using county-owned property for detentions and other operations.
The Board of Commissioners passed the resolution in a 2-1 vote during a meeting that addressed the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's purchase of industrial warehouses to support ICE operations. Democrats Jamila H. Winder and Neil Makhija voted in favor of the resolution. Republican Thomas DiBello voted against it.
“After the deaths of U.S. citizens in Minneapolis and the increased ICE activity here in Montgomery County, we decided to take action to protect all Montgomery County residents," Makhija said in a statement. "We see a federal agency that is engaging in warrantless arrests, prolonged detention without due process, and is defying hundreds of binding federal court orders. All of that makes clear that ICE has ceased to function as an agency enforcing law but instead is creating lawlessness."
The resolution in Montgomery County places a number of restrictions on how ICE can use the county's property and resources. It prohibits ICE from using parking lots, garages and vacant lots for any purpose without the county's authorization, and it allows the county to post signage on its property designating that it is not available for unapproved uses.
DHS has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to acquire industrial properties across the country for the purpose of converting them into staging areas, operations bases, and detention and processing facilities for ICE. The federal agency is projected to spend as much as $38 billion to increase capacity for the Trump administration's crackdown on illegal immigration.
In February, DHS purchased an $87 million warehouse in Berks County with plans to turn the former logistics center into a detention facility with as many as 1,500 beds. Another warehouse in Schuylkill County was sold to the agency for nearly $120 million to be turned into a detention center. Federal ownership of the former Big Lots distribution center is expected to cost the region nearly $1 million per year in foregone property tax revenue.
“Montgomery County opposes the use of warehouses or similar industrial facilities not intended for human occupancy as facilities to hold, jail, detain, house, or otherwise store human beings," the county's resolution says.
Commissioners also reaffirmed the county's commitment to not enter into agreements with ICE or provide resources to the federal government for immigration enforcement. County employees will not assist federal authorities unless required by law and presented with a judicial warrant or subpoena.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro has criticized the federal government's purchase of warehouses in the state and said this week he will use "every tool at his disposal" to block the detention facilities in Berks and Schuylkill counties. That could include state reviews related to environmental, health and labor regulations for the properties. Last month, Shapiro sent a letter to federal officials warning that his administration would not approve permits for detention centers at these locations.
“I’m not going to get into specific steps we are going to take, but I can assure you, over the next couple of weeks or so, we’ll be prepared to take them,” Shapiro said Thursday after a meeting with local officials in Bern Township, the Berks County community where ICE purchased a warehouse.
Shapiro said he's "extremely concerned" about human rights abuses at converted ICE facilities.
For private property owners in Montgomery County, commissioners said they now have approved signage that can be displayed to restrict civil immigration enforcement activity on nonpublic areas.
Winder, who chairs the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners, said she's proud of the county's resolution.
"For me, this is about right and wrong, and how we treat each other as humans," Winder said in a statement. "... We’ve taken a lot of care in thinking through how we stand up for all of our residents. This is a new layer of policy to prevent an unwanted federal invasion on something that we can control: our facilities are off-limits.”
