Two U.S. Representatives from the Pittsburgh area toured the ICE detention center in Clearfield County Thursday in an unannounced visit they later told reporters was just one part of their broader effort to push back against the Trump administration’s deportation policies.
“We're here not just because it’s our duty to do and conduct oversight, but also because we know that we're gearing up for a fight,” said U.S. Rep. Summer Lee, who had tried unsuccessfully to gain access to the Moshannon Valley Processing Center in 2025.
The Moshannon center has been a magnet for criticism and controversy. The visit by Lee and U.S. Rep. Chris Deluzio, both Democrats from the Pittsburgh area, was the first time members of Congress were allowed to make an unannounced visit to the facility in the second Trump administration. They held a press conference nearby after their visit.
Their tour follows a ruling by a federal court this year allowing members of Congress to make unannounced visits to ICE facilities.
Lee said they spoke with one woman being detained who is pregnant but has been bleeding and does not know the status of her pregnancy, and another woman who said she had been sexually assaulted in the facility. Lee said that was at the end of their visit and they couldn’t get details about the situation.
Deluzio said while it was good they were allowed into the facility to speak with some of the people being held there, there were limits to their visit, including the lack of language interpreters. He said he was struck by the fact that most of the people being held there are categorized as low-security.
“These are people who have not been charged with violent crimes,” Deluzio said. “They have not been charged with things like robbery or burglary or rape or murder. And yet that’s who’s in this facility. And so what that shows us, I think, is that Donald Trump's mass deportation regime is showing up right here in Pennsylvania.”
The company GEO Group Inc. runs the Moshannon facility as an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center through a contract with Clearfield County. The facility can hold about 1,800 people and is the largest immigration detention facility in the northeast. It’s been the focus of protests, with immigrant advocates calling for it to be shut down and urging Clearfield County commissioners to not renew their contract with GEO, which ends this year.
There were two deaths in the facility in 2025 and advocates say the facility is the site of human rights abuses and inadequate medical care. Two of the three Clearfield County commissioners have defended the contract with GEO Group, saying they haven't seen concrete evidence of wrongdoing.
“I think the bigger picture for us in the Congress is putting a stop to this mass deportation regime that has broken up families, has broken up homes of people who are not committing crimes,” Deluzio said. “And this is a cog in that machine. And so it is a much bigger fight, I think, for us in the Congress.”
