Advocates call for closure of ICE facility near Philipsburg after detainee’s death

A coalition of several local and national immigration rights groups on Thursday called for the closure of the Moshannon Valley Processing Center — the largest federal immigration detention center in Pennsylvania and the rest of the Northeast — after the death earlier this week of a 32-year-old Chinese national.

Chaofeng Ge was pronounced dead Tuesday morning when staff discovered him unresponsive and hanging by his neck in the shower room of his detention pod around 5:21 a.m., according to a news release issued by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He had been in ICE custody for five days and was awaiting a hearing before the Department of Justice’s Executive Office for Immigration Review.

During a virtual press conference Thursday morning, organized by Shut Down Detention Coalition, more than a half-dozen groups took turns pointing out the history of documented abuses at the Moshannon Valley Processing Center. And, ultimately, they wanted to see the Clearfield County Commissioners terminate the contract between the county, ICE and the privately owned GEO Group, which operates the center.

“This is a really sad day, and the last 24-48 hours have been really awful just learning about this person who died at Moshannon,” said Adrianna Torres-García, the deputy director of the Philadelphia-based Free Migration Project. “And so we saw it necessary to bring everyone together and make sure that people heard that the reason that we’re here is to demand that the Clearfield County Commissioners shut down Moshannon by ending the contract with ICE and GEO. That is the only way that these deaths will stop.”

As Torres-García noted, Ge’s death wasn’t the first at the center that transitioned from a low-security federal prison to an ICE immigration detention facility in the fall of 2021. Less than two years ago, in December 2023, a 37-year-old Cameroonian man named Frankline Okpu died in the center. The final autopsy ruled it was accidental, due to ecstasy toxicity combined with other significant conditions such as coronary artery disease and heart enlargement.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania and two other advocacy groups also filed a complaint last year with the Department of Homeland Security after hearing from frustrated and fearful people detained there. The complaint detailed what they consider inhumane, unconstitutional and punitive conditions.

Allegations included inadequate medical care, a lack of interpretation services and discrimination from staff. Receiving outside medical care had grown to be so adversarial it deterred some women from seeking it, one woman told the ACLU.

A man told the ACLU he was coughing and urinating blood for nearly four months before he was brought to an outside hospital. He said he attempted suicide due to severe depression.

“More and more locals are waking up to what’s really happening here,” said Bobbi Erickson, co-founder of Indivisible: Mayday of Brockport in Elk County. “These atrocities aren’t happening in some far-away community. They’re happening right here in our own backyard. People can now see what was purposefully hidden from them in the woods isn’t just a building; it’s a for-profit human rights violation.”

The official cause of Ge’s death remains “under investigation,” ICE reported Wednesday, although many — including several advocates Thursday — have already started referring to it as a suicide, for obvious reasons. Clearfield County Coroner Kim Shaffer Snyder did not immediately return a message from the CDT seeking comment, about the cause of death or when an autopsy was scheduled.

Ge was arrested on Jan. 23 in Lower Paxton Township, just outside Harrisburg, for what police said was the criminal use of a communication facility, unlawful use of a computer and access device fraud. An immigration detainer was lodged the next day and, eventually, Ge was transferred to the Moshannon Valley Processing Center.

Less than two weeks ago, several local groups held a protest in front of the processing center — which is just a few miles over the Centre County line — due to “alarming and disturbing” conditions reported by the ACLU. Another protest is planned from 2-5 p.m. Aug. 24 at Philipsburg Memorial Park.A protest was held Sunday, July 27, 2025 at the Moshannon Valley Processing Center near Philipsburg. Photo provided

Despite the documented abuses, ICE has mostly rejected such findings. In a news release focused on Ge, it wrote, “ICE remains committed to ensuring that all those in its custody reside in safe, secure, and humane environments. Comprehensive medical care is provided from the moment individuals arrive and throughout the entirety of their stay.”

That statement did not satisfy advocates Thursday. Instead, they asked what else might necessitate an eventual closure.

“I’d like to close out by saying, how many more deaths will it take?” asked Zeynep Emanet, civic engagement director for CAIR Pennsylvania. “Because one death is too many.”

Organizations taking part in Thursday’s press conference included Shut Down Detention Campaign, Detention Watch Network, Free Migration Project, Juntos, CAIR PA, May Day, and Pennsylvania Immigration Coalition.

A record average of 1,340 people were at the detention center as of June 23, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a data distribution organization founded at Syracuse University. The center has a capacity of 1,876, employs hundreds and costs millions to operate.