Advocates ‘stand in solidarity’ with Abrego Garcia, now at ICE facility near Philipsburg

Immigration rights advocates are continuing their push to close the Moshannon Valley Processing Center after Kilmar Abrego Garcia was transferred to the federal immigration detention center located near rural Philipsburg.

Abrego Garcia, who was wrongfully deported from the United States to El Salvador before being returned to the U.S. in June to face human smuggling charges, has become a high-profile figure in the debate over President Donald Trump’s immigration policies. He was moved from a Virginia detention center to the Moshannon Valley Processing Center, the Associated Press reported Saturday.

The Shut Down Detention Campaign organized a protest on short notice scheduled for 5 p.m. Monday at the intersection of Graham Station Road and U.S. Route 322 near Philipsburg. It will be followed by a candlelight vigil.

Advocates have held several recent protests against the Moshannon Valley Processing Center, most recently in late August when hundreds filled Cold Stream Dam park to urge the Clearfield County Commissioners to end the contract between the county, ICE and the Florida-based GEO Group, which owns the facility.

“Every person that comes to these rallies, every little bit counts,” Shut Down Detention Campaign organizer Jasmine Rivera said Monday afternoon. “We’re going to continue to do the best that we can to bring attention to this facility.”

According to the Associated Press, ICE notified Abrego Garcia’s lawyers Friday that he was transferred to the Moshannon Valley Processing Center. ICE said the location would make it easier for them to access him.

The Trump administration has claimed Abrego Garcia was a MS-13 gang member, “human trafficker, serial domestic abuser and child predator.” He denies the allegations and has not been convicted of a crime.

“The ongoing mistreatment of this father and community leader is an international example of the cruelty of our broken immigration system and the terrorization this presidential administration is committing against our neighbors,” a press release for Monday’s protest reads.

“We stand in solidarity with Kilmar and his family, and we demand justice, humane treatment and accountability for him and for everyone being incarcerated at Moshannon.”

In addition to two deaths at the facility, potential abuses at the facility have concerned immigration and civil rights activists since it opened in 2021. The American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania and two other advocacy groups filed a complaint last year with the Department of Homeland Security after hearing from frustrated and fearful people detained there.

An average of 1,404 people were at the detention center as of Sept. 15, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a data distribution organization founded at Syracuse University. It’s the largest federal immigration detention center in Pennsylvania and the rest of the Northeast.

A press release for Monday’s protest continues a call for the Clearfield County Commissioners to take action.

“We call on the Clearfield County Commissioners to stop assisting an agency that blatantly ignores and violates the Constitution,” the release reads. “We know far too well this prison has a long record of abuse and neglect since first opened in 2021, and have heard directly from those detained there that the abuse has only gotten worse in 2025.”

Clearfield County Commissioners toured the facility in August and said they found no signs of poor conditions, WJAC reported.

Safety of ICE facilities has also been in the spotlight after a deadly shooting at a Dallas ICE facility last week. During an event in Ferguson Township Thursday, U.S. Rep. Glenn Thompson, R-Howard, was asked about increased security at the Moshannon Valley Processing Center.

“I would think that individual elected officials, agencies, offices and facilities like [the processing center] ... everybody’s taking a second look at security,” Thompson said.