Ellis Island, the gateway to the United States, was also the world's first dedicated immigration detention facility. Since its opening in 1892, the United States has detained noncitizens arriving at our shores and living within our borders. Today, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detains approximately 18,000 people nationwide. TRAC Immigration, Immigration Detention Quick Facts, Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, (last updated Feb. 27, 2022). In the commonwealth of Pennsylvania alone, ICE recently opened two detention facilities with the capacity to detain over 1,700 noncitizens. The facilities are indistinguishable from criminal jails.

In August 2021, Pennsylvania saw the end of immigration detention at York County Prison, a facility that detained noncitizens in a contract with ICE for 30 years. The contract's termination was thought to be the potential end to mass immigration detention in Pennsylvania. However, just months later, two immigration detention facilities opened to take York's place. In November 2021, Moshannon Valley Processing Center opened in Philipsburg, with the capacity to detain 1,600 noncitizens. This facility was formerly a Bureau of Prisons site shut down by the Biden administration, but reopened for civil detention of immigrants. Berks County Detention Center, previously shuttered and prohibited from detaining asylum-seeking families, reopened as an adult women's ICE detention facility in January 2022. Pennsylvania is also home to two other facilities that detain noncitizens in Clinton and Pike counties. Given that other states, such as New Jersey and Maryland, have passed bills prohibiting State and local jurisdictions from entering into agreements to facilitate immigration-related detention, Pennsylvania is slowly becoming the hub for immigration detention in the Mid-Atlantic.