WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Representative Madeleine Dean (PA-04), alongside U.S. Representatives Chris Deluzio (PA-17) and Summer Lee (PA-12), wrote letters to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the GEO Group, the for-profit prison corporation that owns and operates Moshannon Valley Processing Center (MVPC) in Philipsburg, PA, to demand answers on GEO’s failure to comply with federal standards of adequate staffing and medical care to detainees, as well as obstruction of congressional oversight.
Ahead of GEO’s Second Quarter Earnings Call, the Pennsylvania lawmakers are clear: “There shouldn’t be earnings calls for human detention.”
As ICE’s reckless, and at times fatal, arrests proliferate across the country, Congresswoman Dean conducted an announced congressional oversight visit to MVPC — which began operating as an ICE facility in 2021 — on June 17. Congressman Deluzio and Congresswoman Lee had previously conducted unannounced oversight on May 28.
“As a member of the House Appropriations Committee, it is my constitutional duty to ensure that federal contractors honor their legal obligations and that taxpayer dollars do not fund systemic neglect or cruelty. What I uncovered at MVPC did not reassure me; rather, it confirmed serious reports of medical neglect, safety violations, and explicit contract violations,” Rep. Dean wrote.
During Congresswoman Dean’s oversight at Moshannon, senior MVPC leadership repeatedly admitted that initial medical screenings occurred 24 to 72 hours upon arrival — violating ICE’s national standard of comprehensive screening within 12 hours of every detainee’s arrival.
In August 2025, 32-year-old Chaofeng Ge died by suicide at MVPC. In 2023, 37-year-old Frankline Okpu died in custody at MVPC. In December 2025, 46-year-old Fouad Saeed Abdulkadir died in custody at MVPC.
Following her visit, Congresswoman Dean learned that Acting ICE Director David Venturella spent more than a decade as a GEO senior executive and then as a consultant — creating a grave conflict of interest.
“These failures are not accidental; they are the predictable result of a privatized, for-profit detention business model. As a publicly traded entity, GEO has a strict legal obligation, a fiduciary duty, to act in the best interest of its shareholders. GEO’s focus on maximizing shareholder value drives aggressive cost cutting across medical personnel, nutritional quality, and translation services,” the lawmakers continued.
The lawmakers requested answers from both ICE and GEO regarding federal contract compliance, a commitment to congressional oversight, and recusal agreements governing former ICE and DHS officials currently employed by or consulting for GEO and current ICE and DHS employees formerly employed by or consulting for GEO.
Read the full letter to GEO here.
Read the full letter to ICE here.
Rep. Madeleine Dean is a mother, grandmother, attorney, professor, former four-term member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, and U.S. Representative for the Fourth District of Pennsylvania.
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