DANVILLE, PA — Multiple traffic stops in the Danville area on Sept. 2 led to the detention of people suspected of being in the country illegally, while an immigrant-rights group says federal agents also arrested at least 41 workers at a Geisinger Medical Center construction site that same day.
Mahoning Township Police Chief Fred Dyroff said officers stopped vehicles for alleged violations and turned over some occupants to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement after determining they were in the country illegally. A separate account from the Centre County Rapid Response Network says the day also included a broader immigration operation involving construction workers leaving the hospital campus.
Mahoning Township police say traffic stops led to ICE custody
Dyroff said the township department was involved in traffic enforcement, then transferred certain people to ICE custody after checking their immigration status. He described the department as having a working relationship with an ICE processing center in Williamsport and compared that coordination to local cooperation with other federal agencies.
He also said the department’s collaboration with ICE is not unusual. “It isn’t the first time and it won’t be the last time,” Dyroff said, referring to the township’s role in the Sept. 2 events.
Township Supervisor Chairman Bill Lynn said the township’s main focus is on people who are in the country illegally and have criminal records.
Rights group says ICE arrested workers leaving Geisinger Medical Center site
The Centre County Rapid Response Network gave a very different description of the same day, saying ICE agents, with help from Danville police, stopped workers as they left an EwingCole construction site at Geisinger Medical Center and arrested at least 41 people.
The organization said some workers were stopped at exits from the hospital site, while others were allegedly followed from the edge of Geisinger property to their homes. It also claimed checkpoints were set up near highway entrances and that drones were used during the operation.
Those claims were included in a Sept. 8 press release. They have not been independently verified, and the group’s account differs from what local police have said about the traffic stops.
The group says people from several countries were taken into custody
In its statement, the Centre County Rapid Response Network said the workers arrested in the operation included people from Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras and other countries. The group described the enforcement action as an immigration raid.
The network also said some of the people detained were being held at Clinton County Jail. It further alleged that ICE returned to the Geisinger site on the morning of Sept. 8 and arrested one more person.
Those allegations were not independently confirmed in the material provided, and local officials did not offer a matching account of a return visit to the site.
287(g) agreements are expanding local cooperation with federal immigration authorities
The Sept. 2 activity came as Mahoning Township and other area law enforcement agencies have widened cooperation with federal immigration authorities through 287(g) agreements. Dyroff said several municipalities in Columbia and Montour counties have entered into such agreements with ICE.
Under the 287(g) program, participating local agencies can assist federal immigration authorities in specified circumstances. Mahoning Township entered its agreement with ICE in April, giving designated officers a role in certain immigration enforcement duties.
The Centre County Rapid Response Network also identified Danville Borough, the Montour County Sheriff’s Office and Mahoning Township as agencies with 287(g) agreements. The group opposes the program and says it broadens ICE’s reach into routine local policing.
Immigrant-rights advocates push Pennsylvania officials to curb cooperation
The rapid response network urged Pennsylvania officials to limit cooperation and data sharing with federal immigration authorities. It also called on municipalities to adopt policies that would restrict local participation in immigration enforcement.
The group said such agreements increase the risk that immigration enforcement will be folded into ordinary policing and traffic stops. Local officials, meanwhile, have described the arrangements as part of standard cooperation with federal agencies.
In the Danville area, the Sept. 2 arrests highlight how immigration enforcement is now taking place alongside routine police work as municipalities decide how closely they want to work with ICE.
Questions remain after two conflicting accounts of the same enforcement action
The two versions of events differ sharply on how many people were detained, where the stops happened and whether the operation centered on traffic enforcement or a construction-site sweep. Local police have described a set of vehicle stops that led to ICE custody for some occupants.
The immigrant-rights group, by contrast, says the operation was a much larger raid tied to work at Geisinger Medical Center and involved arrests, checkpoints and drone use. For now, the details remain unsettled, and the competing accounts point to a continuing debate over how immigration enforcement is being carried out in the region.
From the Twin Cities to the border and back, Travel Your Way keeps Minnesota informed.