Rural America Is Getting Blindsided by Something New

NYTimes ^ | 05/02/2026 | Rotimi Adeoye

[devane617]

Rural America has long been where the rest of the country sends what it doesn’t want nearby: prisons, power plants, landfills. These days, two more intrusions have been added to the list: immigrant detention centers and data centers.

In December, Larry Bender, the supervisor of Tremont Township in Schuylkill County, Pa., learned to his great surprise that the federal government had purchased the largest commercial property in the township: a 1.3-million-square-foot warehouse that had been a Big Lots distribution center. It would now be used for immigrant detention.

Tremont is home to about 300 people. The facility was designated for up to 7,500 detainees. Given the social, economic and environmental impact, you might think the government would have provided residents and public officials with advance notice. But the deed was recorded before Mr. Bender said he even knew a sale was in the works.

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TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Miscellaneous; Society
KEYWORDS: dnctalkingpoint; dnctalkingpoints; mediawingofthednc; newyorkslimes; newyorktimes; nytimes; partisanmediashill; partisanmediashills; rotimiadeoye; rural

[devane617]

I post this article for the first sentence: "Rural America has long been where the rest of the country sends what it doesn’t want nearby: prisons, power plants, landfills." That says it all about the writer and the elitists at NYTimes. Good grief!

[cuz1961]

Yo Larry

The ILLEGAL alien detention centers protect the rural communities and provide jobs

Your conflations are vile.

[OttawaFreeper]

Brought to you by the same people who want to import hordes from the Third World to populate these same rural areas.

[Cowman]

How about finding an island somewhere that we could fortify and helicopter all of the inmates in and drop them off. I hear there’s one in the Hudson River that do well.

[cuz1961]

Yo, Rotimi The ILLEGAL alien detention centers protect the rural communities and provide jobs Your conflations are vile..

[alexander_busek]

I post this article for the first sentence: "Rural America has long been where the rest of the country sends what it doesn’t want nearby: prisons, power plants, landfills."

That says it all about the writer and the elitists at NYTimes. Good grief!

No one - neither in rural America nor in suburban nor in urban America - wants a prison, power plant, or landfill nearby.

But what the NYT writer has revealed about himself - even if he doesn't necessarily (I haven't read the rest of the article so don't know what controversial opinions he might go on to voice) explicitly endorse the position of the Supervisor of the impacted town himself - is that he shares this aversion of "refugees."

Regards,

[Presbyterian Reporter]

There was a similar story about a month ago where in Social Circle, Georgia the DHS had purchased a large warehouse to be used for a detention center.

Since the leftist court judges have forced DHS to deport the illegals in this fashion, I have no problems with unused warehouses being used as detention centers prior to deportation.

[unread]

Yeah, South central Ohio is getting a data center. Lots’a jobs they say. Lots’a this and lots’a that. But no housing...

[FamiliarFace]

I think that Everywhere, USA is getting a data center. I know of several within an hour’s drive from my home. Our little town is growing fast…too fast. We used to not ever have traffic. Now there is. Twice a day, like bigger places.

[devane617]

I watch a documentary on Tasmania last night. It was used as a prison where they simply dropped off prisoners and left them on their own.

[Alberta's Child]

The only jobs you get of any significance with a data center is the construction workers. Those places have hardly any employees.

Data centers could be an attractive land use for states that rely on property taxation for municipal revenues. Your town could get a large source of tax revenue on the books without any traffic, no burden on the local school system; etc.

[devane617]

Data Centers look better that Solar farms that have taken over the countryside in my area.

[KevinB]

The author should drive through Prince William and Loudoun counties in Virginia sometime. They’re hardly rural and are full of data centers. Rural areas typically don’t have required electrical and water systems available for data centers.

[Bernard]

The author left solar panel fields off his list. And giant windmills that start aging out the day they are installed. The “used to be farmland” all around the small town I live in is covered with the things.

[Varda]

No he's right. Lived in rural America long enough to see this first hand although nobody thought the power plants were a bad idea.
We tried to fight the prison but the combo of state and local pols on the take won out. It provided zero local employment while definitely lowering quality of life.

[suthener]

“I think that Everywhere, USA is getting a data center.”

I live outside of Mobile, Al. My neighbor works at Barry Steam Plant, a major power production facility. He told me they have a billion dollar expansion project going on to specifically power a data center.

[FamiliarFace]

I do not doubt that at all.

[sit-rep]

Oooooh Heavens... You poor hard done be rural citizens...

[rbg81]

Yeah. And once the Dems get back into power, those detention centers will be used for citizens protesting the Illegal invasion.

[Manuel OKelley]

Or he CBDC, or complaining about foreign influence in our government, or politicians getting rich off insider trading, or dissing aipac