Updated 1:51 p.m. Aug. 27, 2025.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement confirmed that it arrested 24 people in a “targeted enforcement operation” last week in Centre County.
Each of the men was taken into custody by Enforcement and Removal Operations officers on Aug. 19 during traffic stops on Interstate 99 and Route 220 near Bellefonte following “an investigation that identified multiple immigration law violators suspected of temporarily residing” at a location, the agency wrote in a statement on Monday.
ICE identified only two of the men by name. Oscar Alexis Martinez-Lopez, of El Salvador, was described as an “illegal alien and suspected MS-13 gang member who was previously arrested in El Salvador for homicide.” Delfin Amaya-Peres, of Honduras, is an “illegal alien whose criminal record includes convictions for assault, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest in 2011,” according to the agency.
Seven others had final orders of removal and four were previously expelled under Title 42, a public health order that allowed for the immediate expulsion of some migrants during the COVID-19 pandemic from 2020 to 2023.
“ICE is focusing on the worst first through targeted enforcement. However, it is also a crime to live in this country illegally,” ERO Philadelphia Field Office Director Brian McShane said in a statement. “Knowing this, ICE has been empowered to vigorously search out, arrest and remove anyone violating federal immigration law.”
During a press conference on Thursday, representatives of several immigrant rights organizations said that the 26 men — nationals from Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Honduras were taken into custody and that each had been workers at the Mount Nittany Medical Center patient tower construction project who were on their way to the site when they were detained.
A Mount Nittany Health spokesperson said the system could not provide any information because the arrests did not occur on Mount Nittany property. The regional manager for the construction management firm overseeing the project did not respond to requests for comment.
The advocacy groups said the men were taken to Pike County Correctional Facility and Clinton County Correctional Facility, which are both licensed as federal detention facilities, and the Moshannon Valley Processing Center in Clearfield County.
A man who identified himself as a foreman on the project said he had picked up several of the detained workers at a motel where they were staying and was driving them to the job site when they were pulled over by two unmarked vehicles. He said that “many” of those who were arrested had IDs and valid work permits.
Centre County Rapid Response Network — a group of local individuals who operate a hotline and and train responders to verify ICE sightings with the aim of “protecting immigrant communities against deportation threats” — said they are concerned that detained migrants are not receiving due process.
“A main focus of CCRRN is protecting the constitutional right to due process,” CCRRN wrote in a statement. on Tuesday. “If we take this right away from some, we run the risk of taking it away from all. Due process appears to be eroding, and unless we all have these rights, eventually many of us may not have them. We have a duty to care for all segments of our population, believing that unless all are safe, none are safe.”
State Rep. Paul Takac, D-College Township, said he and other officials have been trying to get more information about the status of the detained individuals, but that “these men have disappeared behind a nearly impenetrable wall of silence and secrecy.”
“Over the past week, my team and I have been in contact with the Governor’s office, federal officials, and community organizations in a largely unsuccessful attempt to get answers to basic questions such as, where are they being held? How many were here legally and when will they be released? Or (as has been alleged) were they misled or coerced into signing self-deportation orders?” Takac wrote in a Facebook post. “Will those accused of civil and/or criminal offenses be given a fair hearing to defend themselves or will they, like thousands of others, be secretly railroaded and deported without trial?
“Yes, we have laws that must be enforced to ensure public safety and security. But everyone – citizen or not – has a right to justice and fair treatment under the law. And justice requires both transparency and accountability, especially from the government. Secret police and courts have no place in a free country. These are core principles and values upon which our nation was founded and we must never abandon them.”
The advocacy groups said they believed Pennsylvania State Police assisted in the operation and called on Gov. Josh Shapiro to prohibit helping with enforcement efforts, among other measures. A spokesperson for state police at Rockview, however, said “the Pennsylvania State Police had no involvement with any ICE activity in Centre County.”
The arrests marked the largest roundup of immigrant workers in Centre County since the Trump administration took office in January and began a nationwide crackdown.
“The sense of public safety is quickly eroding here in Centre County amongst immigrant and nonimmigrant community members,” CCRRN wrote on Tuesday. “This impacts who goes to school, who goes to work, who thrives and who simply just try to survive. As school started today, we are aware of some families who hesitate to send their children to school.”
