Pennsylvania state police and officials with the Department of Homeland Security are providing further details on an alleged stabbing incident at the Moshannon Valley ICE processing center on Monday.
Investigators say just before 2:30 p.m., a large fight was reported in the yard of the facility, involving numerous individuals.
Authorities say several individuals were injured in the altercation and at least four detainees were transported to an outside medical facility for treatment, according to an ICE spokesperson.
Troopers say three of the individuals sustained stab wounds from a weapon/shank.
Investigators say no facility staff were injured and those who were transported suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
We also received a statement from the ACLU, who has filed a lawsuit against the facility over the reported “harmful and inhumane” treatment of the detainees.
“The report of a fight involving multiple stabbings at Moshannon is deeply concerning. The ACLU of Pennsylvania have been documenting the inhumane and unconstitutional conditions at Moshannon since it reopened as an immigrant detention facility in 2021, most recently in a civil rights complaint to the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties in July. The Complaint provides detailed testimonials from people currently and formerly detained at Moshannon about how ICE and the Geo Group, which runs Moshannon, have failed to provide
adequate medical care to the individuals they detain, routinely and persistently denied individuals language justice, and subjected individuals to rampant discrimination on the bases of race,
national origin, immigration status, and sexual orientation. The bottom line is that ICE detention, at Moshannon and elsewhere, is cruel and dehumanizing. This cruelty, apart from flouting the
rights everyone has under the U.S. Constitution, is also entirely unnecessary. ICE detention has only been permitted under the U.S. Constitution as long as it does not subject a person to
punishment. That is because people in ICE detention are considered to be under a civil detention scheme. But as we detail in the Complaint, our clients in detention have endured unfathomable
horrors and consistent discrimination based on their identities as part of protected classes. While ICE detention should not exist, to the extent ICE keeps people behind bars, they must keep
people safe and do so in a way that adheres to the most basic standards of dignity and rights.”
State police say the investigation into the stabbing incident is ongoing.
