Clearfield County Commissioners Vote 2-1 to Extend Moshannon Detention Center Contract

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CLEARFIELD — The Clearfield County Board of Commissioners voted 2-1 on Tuesday to approve a six-month contract extension for the operation of Moshannon Valley Processing Center.

Commissioners Tim Winters and John Sobel voted in favor of the extension, and Commissioner Dave Glass voted against.

Sobel and Winters said that rejecting the contract would impact tax money contributed to the Philipsburg-Osceola Area School District, and it would eliminate any oversight they have of Moshannon, the largest immigration detention facility in the Northeast. Both commissioners told the roughly 60 protesters to direct their energy toward their elected U.S. representatives and senators, along with those in charge of enacting federal immigration policy.

“I will be the first to say, our oversight ability is very small, but we still have it,” Winters said. “If we vote no, we have no communication; we have no place in this. We can only vote on the proposal before us.”

Opponents of Moshannon have long called on the county to end its relationship with GEO Group and ICE, for which it receives $200,000 per year.

“It makes me so angry that every day I go to work, a portion of my money goes to harm these people who are desperate for our help,” William Fescemyer, a member of Indivisible: Outcry, said at the meeting prior to the vote. “I don’t know how to convince you that this is so unbelievably evil. It betrays that flag. It betrays our country.”

In September 2021, the county entered into five-year agreements with ICE and GEO Group and has served as a middleman between the government agency and the private contractor that owns and operates Moshannon. 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.

Since the facility reopened as an immigration detention facility, it has drawn criticism 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.

It’s possible Clearfield County commissioners won’t have a role to play after the contract extension expires in March, as ICE reviews its detention operations in Pennsylvania.

In mid-July, ICE published a request for information on “turn-key detention services” for four regions across the country, including central Pennsylvania.

When asked about what the RFI means for Moshannon, an ICE spokesperson previously told Spotlight PA that the agency is “evaluating options, including the potential purchase of turnkey detention facilities where appropriate, or other contracting solutions to support continuity of operations.”

GEO Group’s founder and CEO George Zoley told shareholders in a second-quarter earnings call in early August that the company is “engaged in an active process for the sale of several of our turnkey facilities, subject to mutual agreement on price and our continued management of those facilities under long-term support services contracts.”

In late August, ICE published a request for proposal for several turnkey detention facilities, naming Moshannon explicitly as a “Historical Location” in the facility-specific requirements portion of the request.

“The Contractor shall furnish the proposed detention facility and provide all management, supervision, personnel, labor, equipment, vehicles, supplies, materials, and services necessary to provide safe, secure, humane, and compliant detention services for ICE detainees,” the request says.

Though ICE and GEO Group haven’t confirmed whether Moshannon is up for sale, they haven’t denied that possibility.

Jeff Migliozzi, communications director at advocacy group Freedom for Immigrants, told Spotlight PA he thinks the federal government’s approach to buying detention facilities circumvents accountability and further obscures their operations, as there is no precedent for states to regulate the federal government.

“If, in fact, the federal government purchases Moshannon,” he said, “it will only become more difficult to monitor and expose what is happening inside, and that is very intentional on the part of the federal government.”

If ICE were to contract directly with GEO Group and cut the commissioners out of the equation, Sobel said he’s concerned that he and his colleagues won’t have as much access to GEO Group officials to check on whether someone is receiving medical care or quality food. Sobel said that he has appreciated the relationship with GEO Group and its communication when questions or concerns arise.

The intergovernmental agreement allows commissioners to enter the facility with 24-hour notice, but the officials have been denied access in the past.

While Migliozzi acknowledged that the Clearfield County commissioners provide minor oversight, he was skeptical they could prevent problems endemic to the U.S. detention system.

“It’s not like one form of ownership correlates to a more humane experience,” Migliozzi said. “We see consistently across the board that human rights abuses are occurring inside.”

This is a breaking news story. Check back for updates.

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