READING, Pa. \u2013 The Berks County Board of Commissioners\u2019 weekly meeting on Thursday centered on a warehouse in Upper Bern Township purchased by ICE for $87.4 million.<\/p>\n
Public comment came first.<\/p>\n
Lisa Gallagher of Spring Township raised concerns about ICE\u2019s operations.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you watch any video on their operations, you will see violent and unconstitutional behavior over and over and over again,\u201d Gallagher said. \u201cPeople think it can\u2019t happen here. People are going about their lives thinking that\u2019s someplace else.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alex Crawford of Reading also addressed the commissioners.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m deeply concerned about the safety of my loved ones and neighbors,\u201d Crawford said.<\/p>\n
Commissioners then explained that they learned about the deal only after it was finalized.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was a shock to us,\u201d said Commissioner Chair Christian Leinbach.<\/p>\n
Leinbach says the county had no role in the sale.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was Monday morning at 11:03 a.m. when Fred Sheeler, our recorder of deeds, notified leadership and gave us a copy of the deed and said, \u2018Hey, Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency just filed a deed on 3501 Mountain Road,\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
A number of community members expressed concerns at the meeting.<\/p>\n
\u201cI volunteer at a local food bank in a warehouse,\u201d Gallagher said. \u201cA warehouse is a place to store items, not human beings.\u201d<\/p>\n
Others raised family concerns.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m afraid that one day, my dad will go out for groceries, and he won\u2019t come back,\u201d said Jerepsi Cabello-Melgar of Tilden Township. \u201cIt is terrifying to be Latino in this country. And once upon a time, my parents’ legal status was comforting. I thought that they were safe from ever being taken away from us. But now, as a citizen of this country, I don’t even feel safe.\u201d<\/p>\n
Leinbach said commissioners still do not know what the warehouse will be used for.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have no verification of how it\u2019s going to be used. We\u2019ve heard nothing directly from Homeland Security,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He also pointed to the financial impact.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was approved as a tax-paying private business. Over $827,000 are going to be lost that were anticipated by the school district,\u201d Leinbach said.\u00a0\u201cThey take the hardest hit, followed by the county and the municipality. And, again, we talked about the money. I think it’s $31,000 roughly to Upper Bern.\u201d<\/p>\n
In response to 69 News, ICE sent a statement saying \u201cthe agency is expanding detention space using recently approved federal funding.\u201d ICE added that \u201cit is targeting violent criminals. 70% of the detentions involve individuals charged or convicted of a crime in the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"READING, Pa. \u2013 The Berks County Board of Commissioners\u2019 weekly meeting on Thursday centered on a warehouse in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1322,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[1200,1698,104,1695,1696,1201,1697],"class_list":{"0":"post-1321","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bern","8":"tag-berks-county","9":"tag-berks-county-board-of-commissioners","10":"tag-bern","11":"tag-christian-leinbach","12":"tag-immigration-and-customs-enforcement-agency","13":"tag-pennsylvania","14":"tag-upper-bern-township"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1321"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1321\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}