Rep. Summer Lee Joins PA Democrats Demanding Answers on Moshannon Detention Center Finances  

WASHINGTON, D.C. – SEPTEMBER 18, 2026 — Yesterday, Congresswoman Summer L. Lee (PA-12) joined Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (PA-05) and fellow Pennsylvania Democrats in demanding answers from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the GEO Group, Inc. (GEO), and Clearfield County about the financial relationship behind the Moshannon Valley Processing Center, the largest ICE detention center in the Northeast.

The lawmakers are seeking invoices, payment records, contracts, and communications detailing how taxpayer dollars are being spent at Moshannon as ICE solicits bids for a new contract that could extend immigration detention at the facility for another 10 years. The current five-year agreement is set to expire this month.

The letter is also signed by Reps. Brendan Boyle (PA-02), Dwight Evans (PA-03), Madeleine Dean (PA-04), Chrissy Houlahan (PA-06), and Chris Deluzio (PA-17).

“As Members of Congress, it is our responsibility to conduct oversight of government spending and executive action. GEO has reported record profits driven by this administration’s mass deportation and immigrant surveillance campaigns. As part of these efforts, ICE and Clearfield County have both funneled Pennsylvanians’ taxpayer dollars to GEO. More importantly, our constituents have been detained at Moshannon. It is incumbent on us, as their elected representatives, to investigate the contract terms that peg their detention to GEO’s profit,” the members wrote.

ICE recently issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) to solicit contract bids that would extend immigration detention at Moshannon for another 10 years. The current five year contract is due to expire this month. The RFP sets an expedited timeline — just two weeks of visibility for the public from the time it was posted online (August 28, 2026) to when the Phase 1 Proposal(s) were due (September 11, 2026). This timing is in line with other attempts by the administration to rush government contracts and obscure how taxpayer funds are being spent.  

Both Congress and the public must be able to evaluate the financial impact of the current agreement governing Moshannon before a new contract is awarded. Currently, an Intergovernmental Service Agreement (IGSA) between ICE and Clearfield County provides for the operation of the Moshannon facility and services related to the detention of persons in ICE custody, with GEO as the approved private contractor delivering those services. This contracting structure thwarts oversight because it delays the availability of crucial financial details.

The IGSA agreement requires that the County submit an itemized operating fee to ICE on a monthly basis, which ICE then reviews and approves for payout. According to recent reports, the monthly fixed rate includes a monthly operating fee, which began as $2.95 million per month and may have adjusted over time, a per diem fee of $10 per day for 1 through 800 detainees and $40 per day for 801 to 1876 detainees, reimbursement of one dollar per day for the detainee work program, transportation fees, and fees for guards.

“We request that you provide us with any and all monthly invoices for services provided pursuant to the IGSA and all communications regarding such invoices and payments made for such services at Moshannon from January 1, 2025, to present, by and among ICE, GEO, and Clearfield County,” the members continued. “We also request all invoices, payments, and communications by and among the parties and detainees regarding payments for and operation of the “detainee work program,” from January 1, 2025, to the present.”

“Finally, to the extent that additional agreements exist directly between GEO and Clearfield County, we request such agreements, corresponding contracts, any amendments or modifications, payment receipts, invoices, and supplemental documentation,” the members concluded.

In the letter, the members have requested a number of materials by September 25, 2026 — prior to the expiration of the current IGSA between ICE and Clearfield County, which is set to expire on September 28, 2026.

Find the full text of the letter here.

Congresswoman Lee has repeatedly conducted oversight of conditions at the Moshannon Valley Processing Center. In August 2025, Rep. Lee and a Human Rights First advocate attempted an oversight visit following reports of abuse and the death of a person detained at the facility, but ICE officials denied them entry. In May 2026, Rep. Lee returned with Rep. Chris Deluzio for an unannounced oversight visit. The lawmakers spent approximately two hours inside the facility and heard directly from people detained there about concerns including inadequate medical care, food quality, and conditions for pregnant women. Congressional staff and translators were denied entry, limiting the lawmakers’ ability to communicate with people detained inside.

In the weeks surrounding that oversight effort, additional reports raised concerns about retaliation against people who spoke out about conditions at Moshannon, including a detained man who said he was placed in solitary confinement and later transferred out of state after being accused of encouraging others to refuse meals in protest. Rep. Lee has continued pressing ICE and GEO for answers about conditions, medical care, treatment of detained people, retaliation, and efforts to obstruct congressional oversight, including joining Pennsylvania colleagues in an August 2026 demand for additional records and accountability from ICE and GEO. Rep. Lee also helped introduce the Oversight Access Act to strengthen lawmakers’ ability to conduct unannounced oversight at ICE facilities.

Congresswoman Summer Lee serves on the House Committee on Judiciary and the Committee on Education and Workforce. Since taking office in January 2023, she has delivered historic levels of federal investment totaling over $2.7 Billion brought back to Western PA, including over $580 million for infrastructure, over $110 million for affordable transit, over $500 million to keep clean energy manufacturing at home in Pennsylvania, and over $55 million on clean energy efforts in and around schools to help keep our kids and communities safe. These investments will help improve Western Pennsylvania’s infrastructure and transit, ensure cleaner air and drinking water, lower housing costs, fund research institutions, fuel clean manufacturing, fund STEM innovation and entrepreneurship, boost workforce development, and create thousands of good paying union jobs.  Lee and her team have also delivered casework and constituent services to over 4,000 constituents with issues ranging from helping our seniors and disabled community access Medicare and social security to helping folks secure housing and helping families with immigration support and passports.