Two lawmakers from Allegheny County made a surprise visit to a controversial ICE facility in Pennsylvania.
The Moshannon Valley Processing Center is about two hours east of Pittsburgh, in Clearfield County.
It’s the largest immigration detention center in the northeast.
U.S. representatives Summer Lee (D) and Chris Deluzio (D) arrived at the facility around 10:30 a.m. on Thursday.
Both were let in a half hour later, but their staff and translators were not.
“We’re the first members of Congress to get in. In the past, they’ve been blocking members of Congress who showed up unannounced. We got in today,” Deluzio said in a post to social media.
Recent reports have raised allegations of inhumane conditions in the center.
“Much of what we heard from leadership here sounded positive and yet we heard real complaints, especially from the women willing to speak,” Deluzio said.
The processing center is the same facility where two local men were held after they were arrested by ICE.
GEO, which operates the center, told our NBC affiliate in Johnstown that individuals are provided with access to medical professionals and off-site medical care when needed. Deluzio said there are still concerns.
“Concerns around food, but also healthcare and even pregnancy and how they’re being treated,” Deluzio said.
Lee echoed the same concerns in a press release shared on Thursday. That press release emphasized that a large majority of people being kept at the facility are considered “low-security”, meaning they have not been accused of serious violent crimes.
Lee also stressed that there have been two recorded deaths in the facility in the last year.
Channel 11 reached out to ICE for a statement on the two-hour-long visit. We have not received a response.
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