Congresswoman Scanlon Conducts Unannounced Oversight Visit to Moshannon Valley Processing Center, Largest ICE Detention Center in Northeast

Congresswoman Scanlon Conducts Unannounced Oversight Visit to Moshannon Valley Processing Center, Largest ICE Detention Center in Northeast

Visit follows growing reports of deaths and mistreatment of detainees and court order overturning ICE attempts to deny entry to Members of Congress

Chester, PA - Congresswoman Mary Gay Scanlon (PA-05) this week conducted an unannounced Congressional oversight visit inside Moshannon Valley Processing Center, the largest ICE detention center in the Northeast. After a roughly 30 minute wait, Rep. Scanlon gained entry to the facility and was provided a tour of the Moshannon facility by ICE and GEO administrators for 3 hours. With one exception, she was not allowed to speak with detainees.

The visit occurred without prior notice to ICE after a March 2 court order blocked ICE actions to restrict access to detention facilities by Members of Congress and reaffirmed their legal right to conduct unannounced oversight visits to those facilities.

Moshannon Valley Processing Center is a former prison owned and operated by private prison contractor, GEO Group, and now used solely for immigration detention. While reports of poor conditions at Moshannon have circulated for years, they have dramatically increased since the start of the Trump Administration's mass deportation efforts, including a hunger strike, reports of inadequate medical care and neglect, allegations of sexual assault, and two detainee deaths.

"The American people are entitled to know how their tax dollars are being spent. Given the billions of dollars in deficit spending that Congressional Republicans and the Trump White House are devoting to mass deportation, it is more important than ever that Congress conduct oversight of ICE and DHS operations to find out how those taxpayer dollars are being spent, and ensure that people being held in custody by the United States government are treated humanely," said Rep. Scanlon. "Following numerous reports of unsafe living conditions, subpar medical care, and two deaths at this private prison facility, in which dozens of my community members and constituents have been detained against their will, it would be irresponsible not to inspect conditions at Moshannon firsthand. GEO charges us millions of dollars every month to detain people at Moshannon. Taxpayer dollars should be spent to improve the lives of Americans, not to inflict misery and make private prison contractors rich."

Rep. Scanlon summarized her key takeaways as follows:

• Administrators reported that the population at Moshannon during the visit was 1,634 - consistent with increased detention numbers across the country as ICE arrests have escalated in June and July 2026.

• Officials at Moshannon indicated that 1,311 of the 1,634 individuals detained at the time of the visit were considered low-security. ICE's FY2026 statistics confirm that the vast majority (8 out of 10) of people detained at Moshannon have no criminal record.

• Only 46 (less than 3%) of detainees were women. This aligns with reports that ICE is targeting male breadwinners for detention in order to pressure self-deportation by entire family units (including children who are U.S. citizens).

• The average stay at Moshannon was reported by administrators to be 34 days; current online statistics from ICE list a higher (46 days) average stay.

• While ICE and GEO officials on site said that they did not know or could not disclose how much ICE pays GEO to operate the facility at Moshannon, public reporting indicates that GEO is receiving over $5.3 million per month, consisting of a monthly management fee of at least $3.4 million and an additional fee of $10 per person per day up to 800 detainees, and $40 per person per day for over 800 detainees. This fee structure provides a perverse incentive for private prisons to prolong detention. GEO Group representatives also confirmed that it charges the government additional fees for its expanding private transportation services.

• If one prorates GEO's monthly fees as reported for May 2025, before the most recent surge, it is costing taxpayers $43,741 per year to detain someone at Moshannon, which is about what it costs to send a student to Penn State University nearby for a year.

• Moshannon Valley Processing Center is a former prison, and is run using prison practices. Detained individuals are required to wear color-coded prison garb and eat in their living quarters. There are severe constraints upon their liberty and their ability to contact family and anyone outside the facility.

• By law, immigration detention is supposed to be a form of civil process, not criminal punishment, meaning the system is supposed to be used to manage flight or safety risks and ensure that people attend their court hearings. What detained individuals experience at Moshannon could not be described as anything other than punitive - at best.

• Detainees must perform most of the labor at the facility where they are being involuntarily held, including cleaning showers, toilets, and living quarters, and supplying the majority of labor for food service and laundry. Only two full-time janitors service the entire facility, which has a capacity of more than 1,800 people. While GEO and ICE say that such labor is "voluntary," an administrator acknowledged that these core functions could not be performed without detainee labor. By using detainee labor, rather than hiring employees or contractors at market rates, the private contractor increases its profits.

• Many detainees avoid the institutional meals which administrators said are prepared to meet correctional facility caloric and nutrition standards. Due to poor food quality, detainees have initiated two hunger strike protests this year and rely upon food such as ramen noodles purchased from the facility's commissary, using funds sent to them by friends or relatives. The Congresswoman saw such prepackaged food in the living quarters. She was provided with a lunch tray in the dining hall, which detainees cannot use, but was unable to compare it to what detainees were served.

• While the facility denies using solitary confinement for punishment, its "Special Management Unit" currently has 29 detainees in single cells, separate from the general population. The physical setup of the unit, and admissions by management that some detainees were assigned there for infraction of facility rules, at least partially confirmed reports of abuse of solitary confinement standards. All cells were occupied by only one person. Some were on suicide watch. One had been held there for 220 days. Daily recreation for residents of that unit takes place in a cement block hall containing chain link cages in which "natural light and fresh air" is provided by 1' x 3' openings in the wall about 12 feet above floor level.

During her visit to Moshannon Valley Processing Center, Rep. Scanlon was able to speak with one of her constituents who had previously completed an ICE Privacy Waiver that authorizes the release of information to a third party, including a Congressional office. Moshannon administrators barred the Congresswoman from speaking with other detainees, which made it difficult to assess their actual treatment and conditions.

The July 29 visit follows an August 2025 visit to Moshannon, when Rep. Scanlon was denied entry under orders of former Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, and her January 2026 oversight visit to Philadelphia Federal Detention Center, which serves as a temporary holding facility for individuals detained in the area before they are transferred to Moshannon or elsewhere.

Rep. Scanlon, who is a member of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, has previously visited a detention center and migrant shelter in Texas, ports of entry on both the northern and southern borders, and a family detention center in Berks County, PA, which has since been closed.

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