Dover ICE ERO Sub-Office — Delaware's only ICE site (processing/short-hold, no detention beds)
Overview
The ICE ERO Dover sub-office at 210 Beiser Boulevard, Dover, DE 19904 (Kent County, FIPS 10001) is the only ICE site in Delaware. It is a sub-office of the ICE ERO Philadelphia Field Office, whose Area of Responsibility covers Delaware, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. It functions as a check-in / appointment / processing and short-hold point — it is NOT a detention center and has no detention beds. Delaware has no dedicated ICE detention facility and no ICE detention contract; the state’s 287(g) ban and detainer limits keep local jails out of sustained-hold use.
Because there are no detention beds in Delaware, people arrested by ICE in the state are processed and then transferred out of state, overwhelmingly into the Pennsylvania detention network run by the Philadelphia Field Office — chiefly the GEO Group’s Moshannon Valley Processing Center (Clearfield County, PA; 1,876 beds, largest in the Northeast), plus contracted county jails (Pike, Clinton, Cambria, Franklin) and BOP sites (FDC Philadelphia, FCI Lewisburg). Some southern-DE/Delmarva detainees also drift into Maryland/Virginia facilities. This makes Dover a transfer-origin node, not a holding destination.
Key Details
- Address: 210 Beiser Boulevard, Dover, DE 19904 (Kent County, FIPS 10001)
- Phone: (302) 730-9315; outreach: Philadelphia.Outreach@ice.dhs.gov
- Hours: check-ins/appointments Mon-Thu, 8-11 a.m.
- Chain of command: sub-office of ICE ERO Philadelphia Field Office (AOR: DE, PA, WV)
- Function: check-in / reporting / processing / short-hold; no detention beds
- Detention destinations for DE arrestees: Moshannon Valley (Clearfield Co., PA), Pike/Clinton/Cambria/Franklin county jails (PA), FDC Philadelphia, FCI Lewisburg; some MD/VA facilities
- Enforcement context: Delaware ICE arrests rose from 220 (2024) to 687 (2025); street arrests jumped from 24 to 371 over the same span, concentrated in the Sussex County poultry belt (Georgetown, Millsboro, Laurel, Seaford)
- Gap finding: as of May 2026, no confirmed dedicated ICE detention facility exists anywhere in Delaware — the absence is itself the finding; treat any “DE detention facility” claim as unverified
Why It Matters
Dover is the operational handle on Delaware’s transfer-origin model: a small sanctuary-leaning state with a 287(g) ban and detainer limits has no detention beds, so ICE processes arrestees through a single Dover sub-office and ships them to Pennsylvania (Moshannon Valley and the PA county-jail/BOP network). The human cost — separation from family and counsel — lands in other states’ facilities while the enforcement surge and the political/legal fight stay in Delaware.
Sources
- ICE: Dover, DE sub-office (Philadelphia Field Office)
- ICE: Philadelphia Field Office (AOR: DE, PA, WV)
- WHYY: ICE agreements in Philly, suburbs, NJ and Delaware
- ICE: Moshannon Valley Processing Center
- Spotlight PA: PA jails earn millions detaining immigrants for ICE (April 2026)
- Cape Gazette: ICE active in state, Sussex County