Which Philadelphia-area ICE detention facilities are real?

As of July 31, 2026, “the Philadelphia ICE detention facility” is not one location. It can mean the federal detention center at 700 Arch Street, the GEO-operated Moshannon Valley Processing Center in Clearfield County, a county jail holding people under an ICE agreement, a warehouse project that DHS has now said ICE will not use, or a live procurement that has not yet produced a verified site.

Status record last verified July 31, 2026

What counts as “real” in this record

For filing, visitation, standards, and oversight purposes, a site is not “real” merely because it appears in a headline. A usable facility record needs a status: ICE-listed and active, active through a county agreement, purchased but not operational, cancelled, or solicited. Those categories are not interchangeable.

An ICE facility page is the cleanest starting point, but it is still only a starting point. It should be checked against population data, congressional visit records, county billing records, contract or operator information, environmental orders, and procurement language when those records exist. The reason is practical: the facility label affects where counsel sends a visit request, which detention standards may apply, who can be asked for records, and which local or federal oversight path is available.

That is also why the July 2026 draft-RFP dispute belongs next to, but not inside, this location record. The clause analysis in the July 2026 RFP preemption-clause record addresses the doctrine fight over state and local law. This article keeps the narrower map: where people are actually held, where ICE has said it will not use a site, and where a procurement could change the geography quickly.

FDC Philadelphia: the Center City anchor

FDC Philadelphia is the confirmed city-center facility. ICE lists it at 700 Arch Street, and the facility record is not a warehouse rumor or a future procurement item. WHYY reported that the federal detention center began holding ICE detainees in February 2025, with 125 beds dedicated to ICE, and cited TRAC data showing an average of 94 ICE detainees per day as of November 28, 2025 [1][2].

The population number is not a standing capacity figure. It is a dated measurement. The same record set includes a smaller point-in-time observation: 52 ICE detainees were present on the morning of Rep. Madeleine Dean’s March 31, 2026 visit, according to WHYY’s coverage [2]. For a custody inquiry, those two numbers should not be averaged into a general truth. They answer different questions: dedicated beds, daily average at a date, and a single-day congressional observation.

FDC Philadelphia also carries a facility-specific conditions signal. Parady La died in ICE custody at FDC Philadelphia in January 2026, according to ICE’s detainee death report; the family and advocacy groups later publicly demanded accountability after the death [14][15]. That fact does not by itself establish conditions across all Philadelphia-area detention. It does, however, change what a careful file should preserve: medical records requests, witness identification, grievance or sick-call history, and the oversight channels tied to this particular facility. For that task, the related guide on legal options after a death in ICE custody is the more direct companion.

Moshannon Valley: the largest confirmed Pennsylvania anchor

Moshannon Valley Processing Center is not in Philadelphia, but it is one of the most important confirmed facilities in the Philadelphia-area detention map. ICE lists the facility in Clearfield County near Philipsburg, and the operator figure used in the current record is 1,876 beds [3].

The most useful population snapshot in this record comes from a May 28, 2026 unannounced oversight visit by Reps. Chris Deluzio and Summer Lee. Their release reported 1,417 adults held at Moshannon and more than 78% classified as low security [4]. That does not prove the same count today. It does show why Moshannon cannot be treated as a marginal or speculative site.

Moshannon is also where the operator question matters. GEO operates the facility, while Clearfield County has a local-government role that Spotlight PA described as a middleman arrangement generating about $1 million for the county [6]. When ownership, operator, and public oversight do not sit in one place, the filing path can get sloppy quickly. The same operator-oversight split appears in other ICE contracting records, including the site’s GEO contract risk record and the separate analysis of ICE facility ownership and operator separation.

Conditions records should be tied to that same facility-specific file. In July 2024, the ACLU of Pennsylvania described a federal civil-rights complaint concerning detention at Moshannon. The Temple Sheller Center also published a 2024 report on the facility [16][17]. Those records are not needed to prove the building exists. They are needed when counsel or oversight bodies ask what risks were already documented at the site where a person is being held.

Moshannon is also the obvious facility to check against the live 1,800-bed procurement, but “obvious to check” is not the same as “awarded.” Its capacity is close to the reported Philadelphia-area bed request, and 6abc reported that GEO’s Moshannon contract expires at the end of September 2026 [13]. Those facts make Moshannon relevant to the procurement file. They do not prove that the July 2026 solicitation has selected Moshannon or any other specific site.

The county-jail layer is real, even when it is not “Philadelphia”

The county-jail layer is where “Philadelphia area” most often becomes misleading shorthand. Spotlight PA reported that ICE lists seven Pennsylvania facilities: FDC Philadelphia, Moshannon, and county jails in Cambria, Clinton, Erie, Franklin, and Pike Counties [5]. For a detained person’s family, that can still sound like one regional system. For a filing, it is five different county jail records plus the two anchor facilities.

The billing record confirms that this is not a dormant list. Clinton, Erie, Franklin, and Pike Counties billed ICE more than $21 million combined for 2024–2025, according to Spotlight PA [5]. That figure verifies money moving through the county-jail layer. It does not provide a current detainee count for every jail on July 31, 2026, and it should not be used as if it did.

When a client disappears from the expected Philadelphia facility, this is the layer to check before assuming removal, transfer out of state, or a new private detention center. The right question is not only “is there a Philadelphia ICE facility?” but “which listed Pennsylvania facility or county agreement is holding this person today?”

Upper Bern and Tremont: cancelled through permit and administrative records

The Upper Bern and Tremont warehouse projects are the easiest records to misremember. They were real federal purchases. They were reported as large detention-center plans. They are not, as of this record, active ICE detention facilities.

The reported purchase prices were $87.4 million for the Upper Bern Township property in Berks County and $119.5 million for the Tremont Township property in Schuylkill County, about $207 million combined. Spotlight PA reported that the two sites were planned for up to 9,000 beds [8]. Those numbers explain why the projects were not a minor local rumor. They also do not override the later cancellation record.

The operative legal path ran through Pennsylvania environmental permitting. DEP issued March 5, 2026 orders under the Safe Drinking Water Act and Sewage Facilities Act that barred water and sewage service unless DHS and ICE complied with state requirements. Reporting described DEP concerns including an estimated need of roughly 800,000 gallons of water per day across the projects, Gov. Josh Shapiro’s statement that Upper Bern would produce more than 14 times the permitted wastewater level, and an estimate of up to 100,000 gallons of sewage per day from the Berks site alone [8][9].

DHS then withdrew its Environmental Hearing Board appeal, docketed as 2026030, and sent letters dated July 13, 2026 withdrawing permit requests and stating that ICE will not use the properties [7][8]. Sen. John Fetterman also issued a statement confirming DHS’s cancellation, citing among other points that the Tremont proposal would have quadrupled the township’s infrastructure burden and that the county faced about $2 million per year in lost tax revenue [10].

That sequence matters. The record available here supports cancellation through DEP orders, DHS withdrawal of the administrative appeal, withdrawal of permit requests, and DHS letters of non-use. It does not support describing the warehouse projects as active, permitted, operational, or defeated in court.

The July 2026 solicitation could change the map, but it is not a location

The live procurement is the unstable part of the record. NBC News reported that ICE was working to open four new detention facilities in Seattle, Philadelphia, Miami, and Denver, with space for about 5,500 detainees overall [11]. For the Philadelphia-area component, NBC10 reported a request for a 1,800-bed turn-key facility within 30 miles of the State College airport, occupiable within 30 days of award [12]. 6abc reported the same 1,800-bed figure but described the location requirement as within 50 miles of a local airport [13].

That radius conflict should stay visible. Without the underlying public RFP document in this record, the responsible treatment is attribution, not harmonization. A 30-mile State College airport requirement and a 50-mile local-airport requirement may point the search in similar directions, but they are not the same procurement term.

The speed term is the more urgent filing risk. A turn-key facility occupiable within 30 days of award could make a stale location assumption wrong within weeks [12]. That does not mean a new Philadelphia detention center exists today. It means any filing, visit plan, records request, or standards analysis that depends on location needs a fresh facility-level check.

The procurement also sits inside a broader contracting environment. PBS NewsHour, citing Associated Press reporting, described the Trump administration’s use of no-bid contracts to add ICE detention beds, including nine five-year contracts for 10,312 beds justified by “compelling urgency,” and reported stock gains since November 2024 of 56% for CoreCivic and 73% for GEO [18]. That context explains why a solicitation can move quickly. It still does not identify the winning Philadelphia-area site.

A filing-safe verification rule

Before treating any “Philadelphia ICE facility” report as usable, verify six fields at the site level: the facility name, street or county location, current status, operator or agreement type, dated capacity or population figure, and the source that proves the status. If the source is a news report, follow it to the ICE page, county billing record, DHS letter, DEP order, death report, contract record, or solicitation language whenever possible.

On July 31, 2026, the record supports two confirmed anchors, FDC Philadelphia and Moshannon Valley, plus a county-jail agreement layer. It supports treating Upper Bern and Tremont as cancelled for ICE use through Pennsylvania environmental permit orders and DHS administrative withdrawal. It supports treating the July 2026 1,800-bed solicitation as a live procurement risk, not as proof of a new facility. That distinction is not clerical. It controls standards, oversight, court logistics, and the next place counsel should look.

References

1. FDC Philadelphia, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
2. ICE detainees being held in Philadelphia federal detention center, Mary Gay Scanlon says, WHYY.
3. Moshannon Valley Processing Center, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
4. New Data from Deluzio’s Oversight of ICE Detention Center Reveals More Than 75% of People, Office of Rep. Chris Deluzio.
5. Pennsylvania counties are making money holding immigrants for ICE, Spotlight PA, April 2026.
6. Moshannon Valley Processing Center, Clearfield County, immigration, ICE, local government, Spotlight PA State College, October 2025.
7. DHS Ingalsbe Upper Bern-Tremont letters to DEP, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, July 13, 2026.
8. ICE detention centers in Pennsylvania blocked by Shapiro, federal government, Spotlight PA, July 2026.
9. Pennsylvania ICE detention centers water supplies sewage, WHYY.
10. Fetterman Statement on DHS Cancelling Pennsylvania ICE Detention Center Plans, Office of Sen. John Fetterman.
11. ICE working to open four new detention facilities with space for 5,500 detainees, NBC News.
12. ICE outlines need for detention facility near State College, NBC10 Philadelphia.
13. ICE looking to open new detention facility in Philadelphia, 6abc.
14. Detainee Death Report: Parady La, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
15. Family of Parady La and advocacy groups publicly demand accountability after death in ICE custody, ACLU of Pennsylvania.
16. Why we filed a federal complaint over unnecessary and cruel immigration detention at Moshannon, ACLU of Pennsylvania.
17. Moshannon Valley Processing Center, Temple Law Sheller Center, September 4, 2024.
18. Trump administration using no-bid contracts, boosting big firms to get more ICE detention beds, PBS NewsHour.