(The Center Square) – One week after Gov. Josh Shapiro confirmed that two proposed ICE detention centers would not be built in Pennsylvania, a report points to the rapport he has with Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin.
On Friday, Politico reported that Mullin said he has a “real good relationship” with Shapiro.
“We talk about everything, really,” Mullin told the outlet.
Shapiro, according to Politico, said Mullin was “responsive” as he lobbied against DHS's proposal to convert two warehouses in Berks and Schuylkill counties into ICE detention centers. Shapiro said the two “worked together constructively” and “discreetly” during this process.
Under the direction of former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, the agency had purchased both facilities earlier this year.
U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., said the proposal from the agency would have converted the facilities in Tremont Township and Upper Bern Township into 7,500 and 1,500-bed detention centers, respectively.
Shapiro and Fetterman both expressed their opposition to the plan from the beginning, as the governor met with local officials in February and said that he would “do everything in his legal and regulatory power” to keep the facilities out of the commonwealth.
“We have put the federal government on notice that it is going to be very hard, if not possible, for them to go ahead and build these detention centers in Pennsylvania,” Shapiro said during an interview on WURD in late April. “They need permits and other approvals from my administration, and we made very clear where we stand on that. I do not want these detention centers in Pennsylvania, and I will not allow this cruelty to take root here.”
Earlier this month, DHS withdrew its appeal of the governor’s administration orders that forbid the federal agency from using the water or sewer infrastructure needed to convert those warehouses into immigration detention centers.
On July 13, the agency provided written confirmation to Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection, DEP, that ICE “will not be using [either] Property as a detention center.”
The Shapiro administration added that DEP will “continue closely monitoring these facilities to ensure DHS follows through on its stated intention.”
"From the beginning, I’ve been clear that these warehouses should not be used as ICE detention centers because they are not suitable for people and converting them to detention centers would have posed serious risks to the health, safety, and infrastructure of the surrounding communities," Shapiro said on July 22. "My Administration stood with local leaders and residents, enforced Pennsylvania law, and worked across agencies to protect people from being held in these warehouses and to protect the surrounding communities.”
Shapiro, according to Politico, “made inroads” with Mullin through his existing relationship with Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt.
During Trump’s second term, Shapiro has sued the Trump administration more than two dozen times to challenge the loss of federal funding, rollbacks of environmental protections, and more, according to Spotlight PA.
Last week, Shapiro joined a lawsuit against the Trump administration accusing them of a “campaign of coercion,” WESA reports, that threatens homeland security grant money for states that don’t change their election laws. Mullin is named in that lawsuit.
While Shapiro has challenged the Trump administration over a variety of matters, he’s also facing pressure on his administration’s cooperation with ICE.
On Wednesday, immigration advocates held a press conference calling on the state to end collaboration with the agency. The Shapiro administration told the Pennsylvania Capital-Star that it is reviewing how ICE, Customs and Border Protection, and other federal agencies can access state systems, while adding that Pennsylvania State Police officers are not permitted to detain individuals due to their immigration status.
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