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Ana, a former detainee held in the Berks County Residential Center, was 20 days old when this photo was taken by her lawyer after she was released. She entered the facility when she was 14 days old.
Ana, a former detainee held in the Berks County Residential Center, was 20 days old when this photo was taken by her lawyer after she was released. She entered the facility when she was 14 days old. Photograph: Bridget Cambria
Ana, a former detainee held in the Berks County Residential Center, was 20 days old when this photo was taken by her lawyer after she was released. She entered the facility when she was 14 days old. Photograph: Bridget Cambria

Only family detention center outside Texas may shut after license revoked

This article is more than 8 years old

Immigrant activists in Pennsylvania welcomed the move, where at least five families now held at Berks County facility were detained during ICE raids

The only family detention center outside of Texas may be forced to shut down after its license to operate was revoked – a move welcomed by immigrant rights activists.

Berks County Residential Center in Pennsylvania has had its license revoked, and its pending license will not be renewed.

In a letter sent to Berks County this week, the Pennsylvania department of human services said it “is not renewing” the center’s license to operate “as a child residential facility”. The license for the center expires on 21 February. The letter also says the state has revoked a “certificate of compliance” that was issued 9 November and would have allowed the facility to operate through 21 February 2017. The state also denied approval for its expansion from 96 beds to 192 beds.

The move comes after a warning last year that the county is now appealing.

“This is a huge development,” said Bridget Cambria, a partner with the Cambria & Kline law firm that represents many clients at Berks. “I am proud the state I live in has said they won’t condone family detention.”

Cambria has represented detainees as young as 14 days old at the facility, which operates under a contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Along with one of their parents, children are placed in rooms of six, along with unrelated adults. There is no fence around the facility, which operates out of an old hospital. But those held there are not free to go.

ICE holds parents and their children in “residential centers” that have lower security measures in place compared to those detention centers that hold only adults. Berks is unique in that it holds fathers, as well as mothers, with children.

At least five families now held at Berks were detained during ICE raids earlier this month. Cambria says some of her clients have been held at the facility for as long as five months while their appeals are pending, even though they have a spouse or relative in the US they could live with. Most are seeking asylum based on fear of torture or persecution in their home countries.

ICE has held up the facility as a model for detaining women and children compared to two others in Texas. But immigrant rights advocates say Berks has long been out of compliance.

“Our argument is that Berks should never have been operating to begin with, and the state is finally recognizing that with us,” said Erika Almeron, executive director of Juntos in Philadelphia. “How much longer do these families need to be detained?”

Almeron says she plans to launch a petition calling for ICE to immediately release those now held at Berks, arguing that “without a state license they will be in violation of state law”.

ICE did not respond to request for comment about its response.

Among those pleased with today’s development was a Syrian refugee held at Berks with his 15-year-old daughter from November 2014 to April 2105. He was released when he won his case and joined the push to close Berks. During a meeting with the secretary of the department of human services he says: “I told him what type of life I had in that prison. I think, I felt he understood what it means for a father to stay with his daughter in that place.”

All of this comes as the Texas department of family and protective services finished a Friday hearing on whether it should license and regulate the two private family detention centers operating there and allow them to stay open for business. Its decision is expected next month.

The letter

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