UK family’s plight renews focus on Berks detention facility

• Ed Mahon
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  Ed Mahon comes to Spotlight PA from PA Post, where he covered state politics and policy, produced radio stories that were broadcast on public media stations throughout the state and on NPR’s national newscasts, and co-wrote a weekday newsletter. Prior to joining PA Post, Ed worked for six years as an investigative and political reporter for the York Daily Record, part of the USA Today Network. His reporting on failures in Pennsylvania’s system for protecting domestic abuse victims was a finalist in the national 2018 Livingston Awards for Young Journalists in the local reporting category. He was also part of a team whose coverage of the criminal justice system, including the aggressive use of civil asset forfeiture by York County prosecutors, received the 2018 G. Richard Dew Award for Journalistic Service from the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association. Before joining the York Daily Record, Ed covered K-12 education at the Centre Daily Times in State College and worked as a stringer for suburban sections of The Philadelphia Inquirer. He grew up in Delaware County, Pennsylvania.

Berks County Residential Center. (Laura Benshoff/WHYY)

‘Traumatized for the rest of our lives’

Laura Benshoff / WHYY

The entrance to the Berks Family Residential Center, which is operated by the county under a contract signed with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.  (Katie Meyer / WITF)

• A British couple says they and their three-month-old son accidentally strayed across the U.S.-Canada border, an error that resulted in the family (including 2-year-old twins) being detained by federal immigration enforcement officers. WHYY’s Laura Benshoff has the details. See also The Inquirer‘s story.

• The case is getting a lot of attention, with national and international media like The Washington Post and the BBC covering it.  The family was visiting British Columbia and were initially detained in Washington state before being flown to Pennsylvania. “We will never forget, we will be traumatized for the rest of our lives by what the United States government has done to us,” the Connors said in a sworn statement.

• The Connors criticized conditions at Berks Family Residential Center, an ICE facility in Leesport. They said “blankets and sheets in our room have a disgusting smell, like a dead dog,” unfit for use in wrapping their infant. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said reports of abuse or inhumane conditions are “unequivocally false.”

• The story of the Connors is prompting renewed calls to shut down the Berks County facility, one of the few family detention centers in the country, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports.

• On Tuesday afternoon, Eileen Connors said her family expected to be deported on Wednesday, according to a Tweet by WHYY’s Benshoff. “[I] just can’t wait to get home as this has been a very bad experience,” Connors said.

• Later on Tuesday, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said the Connors were part of a group of seven people in a vehicle that “entered the U.S. illegally, by slowly and deliberately driving through a ditch on Boundary Road in Blaine, Washington.” The agency said two people in the group were previously denied travel authorization to come to the United States, and Canada refused to allow them to return.

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(AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

The 2018 White House Christmas tree is seen in the Blue Room during a press preview last  November. This year, a Pennsylvania tree will be displayed in the room. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

• A tree grown in Pennsylvania will be on display at the White House, the state’s Department of Agriculture announced yesterday. Larry Snyder, owner of Mahantongo Valley Farms in Northumberland County, received the honor of providing the Blue Room Christmas tree. The tree will be cut and transported in November, the department said.

• WITF’s Katie Meyer looks at efforts to shift away from Columbus Day as a paid holiday. A new proposal from a Philadelphia Democrat would trade a day off in October for one in November to coincide with the general election.

• LNP’s Alex Geli provides an update on $2.4 million plans by the Eastern Lancaster County School District to add private changing and shower areas at its high school. The plan follows community backlash last school year over the district’s decision to allow a transgender boy to use the facilities that match his gender identity.

• Also, in Lancaster County, reporter Carter Walker tried to answer the question of how a 14-year-old gets ahold of a gun. Walker’s story was prompted by a homicide last week in the city that prosecutors say was carried out by an 8th grader, one of the youngest people ever charged with homicide in the county.

• U.S. Rep. John Joyce (R) published an op-ed in The Altoona Mirror on Tuesday that blasts Democrats for the current impeachment inquiry. Joyce takes issue on three points: 1) The House must vote to authorize the impeachment inquiry; 2) Democrats are committed to impeachment only because they are afraid they can’t beat President Trump next year at the ballot box; and 3) Trump is delivering on his promises to the voters, so impeachment is just sour grapes, an attempt to reverse the 2016 election. As far as his first point goes, there’s nothing in the Constitution that says an impeachment inquiry must be approved in advance by the full House.