U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement took an individual into custody on Wednesday in College Township, State College police confirmed, but the borough department says it played no role in the operation.
Centre County Rapid Response Network, an immigrant rights advocacy group that monitors ICE activity in the area, reported that a man described as a father of two who was on his way to Bellefonte for a court hearing was detained by federal agents at about 10 a.m. Wednesady on East College Avenue. The group also reported that local police were involved, along with masked, plain-clothed ICE agents traveling in five unmarked vehicles.
In a statement on Thursday afternoon, State College police, which provides police service for College Township, said the department only became aware of the activity after it occurred and did not assist.
“The State College Police Department had no prior knowledge that ICE agents planned to place this individual into custody, nor did the SCPD participate in or was requested to participate in the incident,” police wrote in the statement.
ICE media relations did not immediately respond to a request for comment about what, if any, other agencies were involved, as well as the reason the man was taken into custody.
Former State College Police Chief John Gardner, who retired at the end of 2025, previously explained that the department’s policy is that it does not take an active role in immigration enforcement. It complies with warrants and judicial orders, and assists outside law enforcement in criminal investigations, he said, but immigration enforcement is typically a civil administrative matter that is the responsibility of federal agencies.
Wednesday’s enforcement activity is at least the second arrest by ICE of an individual on his way to a Centre County court proceeding in the last month.
CCRN and other advocacy groups reported that on March 4 a man was arrested by ICE at the Centre County Courthouse in Bellefonte. That led to a recent protest, led by the People’s Defense Front and the Student Committee for Defense and Solidarity, outside the courthouse and briefly onto the street in downtown Bellefonte.
One other known incident of ICE activity within the last year at the courthouse occurred in September, when agents took an individual arriving for a hearing into custody outside the building, WJAC reported at the time.
The largest ICE operation in the county happened in August when 24 construction workers who were on their way to a job site at Mount Nittany Medical Center were detained during targeted traffic stops on Interstate 99 and Route 220 near Bellefonte.
