Melissa Pérez-Carrillo, Spotlight PA; Clearfield commissioners set to vote on contract extension for Moshannon detention center
"The Clearfield County Board of Commissioners is scheduled to vote Tuesday on whether to sign a six-month contract extension for the operation of Moshannon Valley Processing Center, the largest immigration detention facility in the Northeast.
The commissioners’ five-year agreements with ICE and GEO Group are set to expire in late September.
The county acts as a middleman between the government agency and the private contractor that owns and operates Moshannon. For its part, the county receives $200,000 per year. The setup offered a workaround to former President Joe Biden’s 2021 executive order banning private federal prisons, which President Donald Trump reversed in 2025.
The contract extension modifies the staffing plan and changes the contracting officer, but “all other terms and conditions remain unchanged,” according to a copy of the document obtained through a public records request.
Clearfield County Commissioner Dave Glass told Spotlight PA he’s voting no on the six-month extension, citing concerns about the behavior of ICE officers and saying he doesn’t support the federal government’s immigration policies. He said he feels more strongly about it than ever. Though he initially supported the arrangement and voted to approve the contract in 2021, he said it is the vote he regrets the most since becoming commissioner.
Since Moshannon reopened in 2021 as an immigration detention facility, it has drawn criticism from advocates for poor-quality food, inadequate healthcare, and inhumane conditions. The facility’s population has only risen as the Trump administration has escalated federal immigration policy and quickened deportations at a historic rate."
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