With immigration enforcement beefing up across the country, a U.S. agency is asking Carbon County for some space in its correctional facility to temporarily house people who have been detained until they can be moved to a detention center at a Pike County location.

But Carbon County officials want to make sure all aspects are covered in a written contract that would protect not only the county, but all the residents, before they would approve such an agreement.

On Wednesday, Carbon County Prison Board officials heard from Josh Reid, an assistant field office director with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Pike County office.

He told members that while ICE has a detention center in Pike, the agency is looking to create contracts with other corrections facilities for temporary housing based on locations.

“We have a very limited amount of staff in that office (in Pike) and they’re responsible for covering most of northeastern Pennsylvania, which goes all the way from the New York border to all the way down to about Allentown, where they do enforcement operations,” Reid said, noting that a high percentage of those arrested by ICE are either from local jails or from the Allentown area.

“Our current detention center in Pike is located a great distance from Allentown, so it makes it difficult for us to do some of our operations,” he added.

Because of this travel time, ICE is looking to enter into a contract with Carbon County to house detained men for no more than 72 hours to allow for time for officers to come and pick them up; and for women indefinitely since ICE has limited female bed space in Pennsylvania, Delaware and West Virginia.

Females could go through immigration proceedings while in Carbon’s facility, if the board chooses to contract with ICE.

Reid said they could be housed here from a week to a year, based on immigration proceedings and the status of their cases.

The board asked what types of people would ICE be looking to house. Reid said typically low level criminals; however, that may be dependent on the case and transportation of the individual, meaning there may be some medium crime cases as well.

Cost concerns

Commissioner Rocky Ahner asked about the financial part of the proposed contract, with who would be responsible for that individual’s medical care while in Carbon’s facility since they would not be a county inmate.

“How it works,” Reid said, “is we have immigration health service forms so any detainee of ours that needs any type of outside treatment, it has to be approved by doctors with them. Once it’s approved, yes, we cover it.”

If a detainee has to go to the hospital, Carbon would have to provide guard service, but those hours would be billable to ICE.

With regards to a daily rate paid to Carbon to house these detainees, Reid said that would need to be finalized, however he said in Pike it is over $100 a day, but he couldn’t provide a specific amount.

“Depending on the services you provide in the contract and the standards you’re under ... it really depends on the contract,” Reid said.

Liability concerns

County solicitor Bob Frycklund said that one of his concerns was the county’s liability for any alleged unlawful detentions.

Reid said that if Carbon contracts with ICE, they would be under ICE’s custody and in the event a case happens, the U.S. Attorney’s Office would be representing the case.

Frycklund said that while he understands that, he still has concerns that the county could get sued because when suits like this happen, “everybody involved gets sued.”

Reid said that in his 20 years of work in this field, he has never seen a county be held liable for holding someone on an ICE detainer.

Sheriff Daniel Zeigler confirmed that under the contract the detainees would be under ICE custody. However, Carbon would just be housing the detainees until they can be moved to the detention center.

Commissioner Wayne Nothstein asked if there have been any major incidents at any of the contracted facilities where a detainee attempted to commit a crime while in that facility.

Reid said that while something could happen, he has never seen a detainee try to murder an inmate; however, there have been some occasions of allegations of sexual assault.

President Judge Roger Nanovic asked if ICE has any contracts with Lehigh or Northampton counties for housing detainees since a lot of these individuals Carbon would be housing would be coming from the Allentown area.

Reid said they do not.

“I’m wondering why there are no contracts with either of those two counties,” Nanovic said.

Community concerns

Prison board members stressed that they want to cover all bases before signing any such contract with ICE because in small communities like Nesquehoning where the correctional facility is located, people are going to be concerned.

“While I support ICE and everything you are doing out there ... I do have concerns when you bring that element into a community, and if something breaks loose, while you can train our men and I know our COs (corrections officers) are very capable of handling that, but can the borough of Nesquehoning handle the crush of what could possibly happen with their police department they have there, considering we have a law enforcement shortage here in the county,” Commissioner Mike Sofranko said. “I’m not going to sit here and play games. We’re a magnet for protests for everything.”

Sofranko added that there are some security items at the prison that may need to be addressed further because, as it was alluded to by the board, “it does become a politically charged area and I don’t know if we’re adequately prepared for that onslaught or what may come.”

Reid said he understood the concerns but he had never seen protests at their facilities that required police intervention.

Sofranko agreed; however, he wants to make sure the board is doing the best for all of the county and not just helping ICE.

“There is some liability and that falls out into the community,” Sofranko said. “... You can bring an element, especially since we’re so close as Judge Nanovic has brought up, to the Lehigh Valley. It’s not hard for somebody from Lehigh or Northampton County to find Carbon County. It’s not like we’re bringing them halfway across the state.”

“My second concern is that, is the local law enforcement ready for it?” Sofranko added, noting that neither local police nor even the sheriff’s department has the manpower needed for a large-scale response if an incident occurs. “I don’t want to not support you, I do. But I do have concerns about the community.”

“The (political) climate is my concern too,” Nothstein said “with protests and that.”

He added that his other concern is figuring out what is beneficial to the county and residents.

Following the lengthy discussion, the county asked to look at a tentative contract, much like what Pike has in place, so the board can review it.

They also asked Reid if there was any information his office could provide the county to best ensure county residents of their safety if Carbon would actually entertain the contract.

“I’m not saying it’s going to happen, and I pray to God it don’t, but with the way the world is today, I think we need to make sure that, if you’re bringing in that type of element, the possibility is there, even if it is only for 72 hours, we just got to make sure that there’s something there that helps protect those communities that could be affected and keep everybody safe,” Sofranko said. “We’re here to support you, but we need to make sure Nesquehoning doesn’t bear the brunt of something that they don’t need.”

No formal action was taken on the matter at this time.