Why Should Delaware Care?
Farmland that once covered most of Southern Delaware has been covered up by houses, industrial projects and, more recently, large-scale solar projects. Some local farmers hope that the USDA’s decision to stop funding these solar projects will help protect farmland. 

Large-scale solar projects on farmland have been controversial in Delaware for years, and now, funding changes at the federal level may slow the growing industry. 

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced last month that her agency will no longer provide guaranteed loans to large-scale solar projects on farmland. 

“Subsidized solar farms have made it more difficult for farmers to access farmland by making it more expensive and less available,” Rollins wrote in a press release. 

Some Delaware farmers see this change as a win for farmland preservation. 

“I am absolutely tickled to death,” said Jim Minner, Kent County Farm Bureau president. “We’re losing too much really good viable farmland to solar.”

The change follows a period of rising wholesale electricity costs across the mid-Atlantic – one that last year sparked a backlash from state governors who called for sweeping reforms, including faster approvals of proposed wind and solar projects.

It also comes as Delaware lawmakers try to push for increases in the amount of renewable power produced in the state. In 2024, about 9% of Delaware’s total in-state net generation came from renewable resources, with most of it produced by solar energy, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. 

State officials want that figure to reach 40% by 2035.

This is not the first time the Trump administration has ended funding for solar projects. 

President Trump’s Reconciliation Budget Bill, also known as the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” signed into law this past July, made significant cuts to clean energy incentives. 

The law eliminated residential clean energy tax credits, which allowed homeowners to deduct 30% of the systems’ costs from their taxes. The incentive will expire on Dec. 31.  

In addition, companies and developers seeking to qualify for commercial clean energy tax credits must either start their projects before July 6, 2026, or have their projects in service by the end of 2027.   

Dale Davis, president of CMI Solar and member of the Delaware Solar Energy Coalition, said the cuts to federal funding, the tax credits and high tariffs on importing solar panels will “definitely create a downward trend” in new solar projects across the country. 

Farmers react

Minner said that local farmers are glad to see the USDA end the guaranteed loans to solar because of the rapid development of farmland in the southern part of the state. 

“What we don’t lose to houses, we lose to solar panels,” he said. 

Minner, who has been a crop farmer in Kent County for 35 years, recently lost a piece of farmland in the town of Viola that he had rented after the owners chose to lease it for community solar panels instead. 

“That was the best piece of ground I had,” Minner said. “It’s in solar panels now. I didn’t own that. So, I had to take whatever was given.”

Minner argues the spread of solar panel projects onto productive farmland means less land available for agriculture, forcing small farmers like him to compete for what’s left while also facing higher costs, as the financial incentives for leasing land to solar companies are often far better than farming income. 

“As more farmland goes into solar, all of us farmers are going to be fighting, competing for the same land, just – it’s not good,” he said. 

This opposition to solar projects on farmland isn’t new. 

In 2023, Kent County approved new restrictions that banned massive solar projects on farmland in response to the growing number of solar projects in the county. 

Individual solar projects now have a 50-acre limit in the county’s agriculture conservation zoning district, and there is a cap of 800 total acres that can be taken up by solar projects in that district.

“I’m not opposed to solar, but I’m opposed to solar taking up valuable farmland,” said Tricia Nash, a Kent County farmer who advocated for the solar limits. 

But Davis, the president of CMI Solar, said community solar projects on farms can actually help preserve farmland. 

Farmers can make more money by leasing out parts of their land for solar projects than they could from farming it, helping financially support the rest of the farm, Davis said. 

And once the lease on a solar project ends — usually after about 25 years — the land could go back to agricultural use, whereas the landscape would be permanently changed with other types of development. 

“Once you build a house on it, it is never reverting back to agriculture, ever,” Davis said. 

But Kent County farmer Paul Cartanza Sr. said it is “very, very expensive” to restore farmland to its original state after it has been used as a solar field. 

Solar companies sometimes agree to front the cost of removing all their equipment after the lease is up, but the topography and health of the soil still needs to be restored, Cartanza said.  

Some solar on farms still funded

Delaware farmers will still be able to get guaranteed loans for some solar projects, however. 

The USDA Rural Development Rural Energy for America Program will give loans for solar projects that generate less than 50 kilowatts of power as long as they are “right sized” to only provide power to the farm itself. 

New Castle County poultry farmer Greg Ains has one of these small-scale solar projects that produces about 21 kilowatts, about 90% of the power he needs to run his farm. 

In 2021, he received an $80,000 USDA grant and a $30,000 state grant to complete the project. The USDA now offers the guaranteed loans instead of grants. 

The total cost was $328,000 with an estimated five-year return on investment, but with the grants, the return on investment shortened to three years. 

State grants for solar projects, as well as low-interest loans, come from Energize Delaware, a state-created nonprofit that offers different programs and loans to support renewable energy projects in the state. 

Energize Delaware Executive Director Drew Slater said in an email that the nonprofit has about  $10 million of low-interest loans in the queue for approval. He said those loans are primarily for similar solar projects on poultry farms. 

Slater also noted that despite the federal incentives being taken away, he’s seeing projects move forward more quickly instead of being delayed or postponed.

“We know that the investment tax credit, there’s some certainty that is going to go away, and so what we’ve seen is that solar installers and customers are more eager to do it right now and try and push that timeline as quickly as possible,” he said. “So we’re not in this period yet of projects being delayed, deferred or eliminated.”

Ains said he likely would have made his investment into solar power even without the grants. But many farmers don’t have the upfront capital to make such a long-term investment, so the grants and loans are critical to these projects, Davis said. 

Ains is already seeing the benefits of his solar panels. Last month, his power bill was only about $300, and some months, he pays nothing at all. His power bills used to be about $4,000 a month. 

While Ains is seeing a financial benefit from solar, he said he also opposes larger-scale solar fields on farmland for the same reason many farmers cited.  

“Farmland is precious,” Ains said. 

Spotlight Delaware reporter Brianna Hill contributed to this report.

The post Trump admin cutting solar spending. Some Delaware farmers are celebrating appeared first on Spotlight Delaware.

Why Should Delaware Care? 
While the Sussex County-based Nanticoke Indian Tribe faced fundraising setbacks this past month, the Tribe has bounced back and appears to be flourishing ahead of its annual powwow and new cultural center renovations. This momentum for the Delaware tribe stands out amid federal funding cuts for tribal organizations. 

Preparations for the upcoming Nanticoke Indian Tribe powwow – an annual event celebrating the tribe’s culture and traditions that draws more than 10,000 attendees – were not all smooth sailing for the tribe. Just three weeks out from the event, scheduled for Sept. 6 and 7, the Sussex County-based tribe was facing a $30,000 funding shortage. 

Within 10 days of launching a GoFundMe campaign to close that gap, however, more than 130 community members came together to donate the additional money the group needed to fully carry out the annual event. 

Now, between the flurry of community financial support and the tribe breaking ground on a new community center last week, Nanticoke Assistant Chief Farrah Norwood-Stigall said members of the tribe are feeling the forward momentum heading into their 47th annual powwow. 

“We’re totally excited,” Norwood-Stigall said. “I like to say the powwow is pretty much a living classroom for people.” 

Nanticoke powwow history

Slated to be held at Hudson Fields in Milton on Sept. 6-7, the two-day powwow will feature dancing, drum circles, church services, and an all-around effort to educate people about Native American culture, Norwood-Stigall said.

The Nanticoke tribe has its roots in the Millsboro area of southern Sussex County, and the majority of the tribe’s 600 members still live in that area, Norwood-Stigall said. Some members have moved away from Sussex County, so the tribe’s reach now extends to parts of New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New York, she said. 

Other Native American tribes from across the eastern seaboard and even as far away as Canada make the journey to Sussex County to take part in the weekend-long cultural celebration, she added. 

The Kent County-based Lenape Indian Tribe, Delaware’s only other state recognized Native American tribe, also attend the event every year, Norwood-Stigall noted. 

The grand entry and prayer takes place at the beginning of both Saturday and Sunday’s festivities and is perhaps the most memorable display of Native American culture for attendees. 

“It’s hard to describe,” Norwood-Stigall said. “You get to see all of the tribes all together in unity and their flags.” 

June “Morning Star” Robbins, who is well-known in the community for making the tacos that fuel attendees all weekend, said the various dance performances throughout the weekend, including the Round Dance and the Nanticoke Toe Dance, are the highlight of the powwow for her. 

“I’ve been a dancer since I was a little girl. It’s a great honor to dance,” said Robbins, who is the curator of the tribe’s museum in Millsboro. 

Robbins added the Round Dance signifies inviting all people, regardless of whether they are Native, to join in the powwow and connect with one another. 

University of Delaware professor Jessica Horton, whose work focuses on Native North American art, said the powwow is a modern form of intertribal gathering that originated as a reaction to the late 19th century federal government policies of forced assimilation for indigenous people. 

Now, Horton said, the powwow is both a space of celebration and a chance for re-connection among the Native American community.

“The powwow is this vibrant cultural form that makes it so clear that Nanticoke and other native people are here,” she said. “They’re culturally vital and alive and part of the present and future.”

Mixed fundraising results

While the Nanticoke tribe faced some severe fundraising shortages ahead of this year’s powwow, the group simultaneously succeeded in its capital campaign project to build a new community center. 

The tribe was $30,000 short of its $80,000 powwow fundraising goal until the Cape Gazette published its GoFundMe on Aug. 14.

In just 11 days, 137 people donated just more than $16,500 to the campaign. The rest of the gap was covered by donations directly to the tribe, Norwood-Stigall said.

Norwood-Stigall said she is not exactly sure why the tribe struggled with funding for the first time this year. 

She speculated that some businesses and individuals have been giving smaller donations to events across the board due to general economic concerns. 

Though the majority of the $80,000 in fundraising goes toward powwow-related expenses, the money also sustains some of the Tribe’s operations, like paying its employees and supplying electricity to its building throughout the rest of the year, Norwood-Stigall said.   

“The powwow is our No. 1 fundraiser,” she noted. 

In addition to programming at the Nanticoke Indian Museum throughout the year, the tribe has a couple smaller events that it also hosts annually. These include celebrating Native American Day in November and Heritage Day in May. 

Horton, the UD professor, said the revoking of federal funding for tribal communities has left tribal cultural institutions across the country more vulnerable. 

Since the Nanticoke are a state-recognized tribe rather than a federally recognized tribe, however, they have not been impacted by federal funding cuts, Norwood-Stigall said. Instead, it was decreases in donations from local donors that made fundraising for this year’s powwow more difficult. 

But separate from the powwow funding, the tribe completed a $3 million capital campaign for a new community center and broke ground at the site, an expansion of the current community center located off of Route 24 in Millsboro, on Aug. 25. 

Norwood-Stigall said the group had been working on fundraising for the community center since before the COVID pandemic, securing various state and federal grants and getting the necessary permits from the county.

“It’s been a very long time coming,” she said.

The updated center, which is set to be completed by the end of summer 2026, will continue to offer the youth cultural education programs that the previous center had. Norwood-Stigall said she also hopes to put a food bank in the center, and expand to host other events for the broader Millsboro community. 

More expansion 

A couple of minutes down Route 24 from the tribe’s community center is its history museum, which has not received any updates or repairs since the 1980s, Norwood-Stigall said. In an effort to update both of the tribe’s spaces, she said, the group is also launching a fundraising campaign for museum renovations. 

In the wake of federal funding cuts for Native American institutions, Norwood-Stigall said she is more worried about fundraising for the museum project. 

“We are a little bit concerned about what the future holds for that,” she said. 

While the tribe has held its powwow at Hudson Fields in Milton for the past four years, Norwood-Stigall said the ultimate goal is to bring the annual gathering to the 31 acres of land the tribe owns behind its community center. 

Reaching that goal will require adding some more infrastructure to the land, such as bathrooms and electricity access points. Still, Norwood-Stigall said, it would allow the tribe to continue growing and sharing its cultural identity through the annual powwow. 

“It’s a sacred space where our people can gather, and a space where we can teach others our mission to preserve our identity, assert our sovereignty and create opportunities for youth,” she said. 

Get Involved
The Nanticoke Indian Tribe Powwow will be held at Hudson Fields in Milton from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 6, and Sunday, Sept. 7. Entry is free for children under 10, $5 for kids ages 11-17, and $10 for adults. 

The post Nanticoke Tribe overcomes fundraising woes, gears up for annual powwow appeared first on Spotlight Delaware.

Why Should Delaware Care? 
Resources for homelessness and drug detox are scarce across the state, but particularly south of the canal, where residents often need to go out of state to Maryland or Pennsylvania to get treatment. A couple of legislators and nonprofit organizations are trying to address that gap in Kent County, but they lack the necessary coordination and state funding to get the projects to the finish line.  

A former auto shop next to a Route 1 offramp? A Kent County court building? A two-story office building on West Division Street? Or a hotel? 

As Kent County rushes to address a worsening homeless situation, and a persistent drug crisis, all of these spaces in Dover have been proposed as potential sites to help people who are suffering.

Everyone seems to agree that something needs to be done. But a lack of committed dollars from the government, combined with limited coordination between different groups proposing new services pose a risk that the efforts could ultimately create a patchwork of underfunded facilities. 

“We already have small facilities and they don’t work,” said Doug Ferris, who recently purchased the auto shop property near Route 1 to build a 75-bed detox center. 

Ferris said his proposed center, by contrast, would be big enough to sustainably serve the county. 

On Monday, the retired financial advisor showed Spotlight Delaware the property, highlighting that it sits along Bay Road, an arterial where many homeless people sleep. During the tour, Sen. Eric Buckson (R-Dover) pulled into the property in a large pickup, wearing an American flag baseball cap. 

He joined the interview and began to talk about his own plans to provide homeless and addiction services. Offering a frequent Republican critique, he claimed that Delaware has “demonized” police, leading to too little enforcement of drug use. 

“I can show you where Kensington Avenue is in Dover, Delaware,” Delaware Sen. Eric Buckson (R-Dover) said, referencing a street in Philadelphia at the center of that city’s drug epidemic.

Buckson’s Push 

For Buckson, opioid use in Kent County is personal. 

His sister, a former Delaware lawyer, ended up pregnant and living on the streets with a drug addiction, he said. Buckson described the challenges that he and his wife faced having to raise his sister’s child for five years, while his sister was in rehab. 

Because of this experience, Buckson told Spotlight Delaware that he has been advocating for homelessness and drug use services even since the 2010s when he was a Kent County Levy Court Commissioner.

In more recent years, Buckson has been pushing for what he calls a “HOPE-style Center” in Kent County, modeled in part after a hotel that Gov. Matt Meyer turned into a homeless shelter in 2020, while he was New Castle County’s executive. He used $20 million in Covid-era relief dollars to make the purchase and subsequently named the facility the Hope Center. 

The Kent County version would be more focused on detox from drug abuse than its New Castle County counterpart, which is primarily a homeless shelter. Buckson said. He views drug use as more of a pressing issue in the Dover area. 

“It really should be a robust, middle-of-the-state center. All things addiction, mental health and everything else,” Buckson said. 

Buckson’s focus highlights an ideological divide among advocates for the homeless. With the differing opinion, University of Delaware professor Steve Metraux said the focus on detox in Kent County is misguided. Instead, he said the county would better benefit from more services that provide housing.

“At the end of the day, they’re still going to have a housing problem, and they’ve got virtually no chance of any kind of sustained sobriety if their housing needs aren’t met,” Metraux said. 

The Housing Alliance Delaware’s most recent statewide Point-In-Time count, which tracks homelessness across the state on one night in January, found that 2025 broke the record for the highest number of people unhoused, at 1,585. This was a 16% increase from 2024, which was the previous highest year on record. 

According to the Kent County Emergency Medical Services Division, reported opioid overdoses in the county dropped by 25% from 2023 to 2024. Still, Delaware remains the state with the fifth highest drug overdose death rate, according to the CDC. 

Buckson has been lobbying for a detox facility for years, and has suggested using a recently vacated family courthouse in Dover, which the state purchased with federal Covid-19 dollars. However, he said he has struggled to get people with the “necessary funding” on board. 

“I have failed miserably to get the attention of the majority party to help me champion this thing,” Buckson said. 

Buckson added that he is looking to the governor’s office to “move the needle” on the project by committing public dollars to it. 

In a statement emailed to Spotlight Delaware, Meyer’s office acknowledged the value of a potential HOPE Center-like facility in Dover, but did not commit specifically to providing funding or support for the project. 

“Our focus is on ensuring that any investment is sustainable and delivers measurable results for Delawareans in need,” Meyer said in the statement.

A detox center, from the ground up

Ferris, the owner of the autoshop property, said as recently as last year he had no intention of getting involved in the homeless services sector.  

But eight months ago, he said people who work in addiction recovery approached him about launching a detox center in Dover. He declined to say who made the suggestion. He soon began to see the dire need for such a space, he said. 

“You drive downtown and you look and it’s like, that’s somebody’s kid out there. It’s really sad,” Ferris said. 

Two months ago, Ferris closed on the property at 1011 South Bay Road, where he plans to demolish the auto shop there and build a detox center. 

Theresa Campbell Harris, director of the Center for Neighbors in Need in Dover, said she also sees a need for a detox center, given the number of the people who use the shelter’s meal program and also need medical attention for drug use-related issues. 

Harris doesn’t know where to send people, she said, because the limited detox services in Delaware are either too far for her center to transport people to, or are closed in the evening, when her center is serving meals. 

“It’s kind of hit and miss,” she said. 

Adding to the dearth of resources in Kent County, Harris said, Bayhealth Medical Center, the primary healthcare provider in Kent County, does not have a dedicated substance abuse team, like its counterparts at ChristianaCare in New Castle County and Beebe Healthcare in Sussex County. 

This makes Bayhealth a less viable option for residents in need of substance abuse treatment, she said. 

A spokesperson for Bayhealth confirmed in a statement attributed to Chief Strategy Officer John Van Gorp that the hospital does not have a dedicated substance abuse team, though it does “regularly treat patients experiencing medical conditions related to substance use.” 

In an effort to fill this gap in detox facilities, Ferris said his intention is to fit about 75 beds in the facility, which will eventually be staffed with doctors, nurses and therapists. 

While Ferris said he is prepared to finance the whole construction process himself, which he estimated would cost $4 million to $5 million, he hopes to get some state funding to push along the project. 

He said DEL-One Credit Union is helping to pay for the project, as well. 

Wraparound services

A 10-minute drive across town from Ferris’ space is 630 West Division Street, where the Dover Interfaith Mission for Housing has a building. Its officials acquired the property in 2023 using a federal grant, and they plan to turn it into an all-purpose facility with drug rehab, 40 beds of transitional housing and other support services. 

Carol Boggerty, the organization’s board chair, said she likes the HOPE Center in Wilmington as a model, but views the services that Dover Interfaith plans to provide as most closely suited to Kent County’s needs. 

“Standalone facilities like the HOPE Center, they won’t work in Kent County,” Boggerty told Spotlight Delaware. “So when people are ending Doug’s [Ferris] program, he will automatically know, ‘hey,’ I know Dover Interfaith has a bed.” 

The Dover Interfaith Mission has faced controversy over the past few years, as its former director and another employee embezzled over $700,000 in federal grant money, meant to be used for people suffering from homelessness. The two employees, Karen Wilder and Renwick Davis, pleaded guilty to the embezzlement charges on Aug. 8. 

Boggerty said the scandal has not impacted the rest of Dover Interfaith, as the community has recognized that it was an isolated incident with the two employees, and has continued providing financial support to the nonprofit. 

Still, she said, the organization has the funding to get the building ready, but not to carry out its full operation. For that, its officials need to get money from the state. 

Boggerty, who is also the director of pastoral care at Bayhealth, said she would like Interfaith’s new facility to partner with Bayhealth, so that the hospital could send patients there for care and transitional housing before they are released fully on their own. 

Bayhealth said that it was open to collaborations that could “complement” the care that the hospital already provides. 

A bipartisan effort? 

Though Buckson said he still needs “champions” from the Democratic “majority party” to get on board with the project, he andSen. Kyra Hoffner (D-Smyrna) have been collaborating on the vision for a couple of months. 

Hoffner, too, said she has recognized the need for better detox and transitional housing services in Kent County for a number of years, but the barrier has always been funding. 

Two years ago, Hoffner proposed purchasing a hotel on Route 13 in Dover for such services, but could not get enough money for it. She also said that neighbors opposed it. 

Now that Hoffner and Buckson are joining forces, she said she feels optimistic about the project. 

“I feel like we’re doing baby steps,” she told Spotlight Delaware. “But with me and Senator Buckson working together, it will become a bipartisan support.”

To pay for a service center, Buckson mentioned the possibility of using money allocated to Kent County from a commission that distributes public dollars that had been obtained from the state’s legal settlements with prescription opioid producers. 

Bradley Owens, director of the state opioid commission, said the commission already is giving “significant funding” to other Kent County organizations, indicating that any grant requests from Buckson’s  may not automatically be approved.

Still, he said he has met with Buckson to discuss his vision, and supports the senator’s push for better resources in Kent County.

Local politicians in Kent County, including Dover mayor Robin Christiansen and Levy Court Commissioner Bob Scott, also have expressed support for Buckson’s project. But, they also said its funding would be up to the state. 

Asked if the county could dedicate dollars, Scott said, “I’m not sure exactly what we can do.

The post Kent County groups have big plans to address homelessness, drug use, but money is scarce appeared first on Spotlight Delaware.

Why Should Delaware Care?
The Trump administration’s immigration crackdown has completely transformed the everyday reality for immigrants in Southern Delaware, imbuing the lives of hundreds of people with fear and uncertainty.

Gina remembers the abandoned cars appearing on the road. 

It was a week in March, and they emerged without explanation. 

Derelict lines of vehicles littered the shoulders of U.S. Route 113 leading into her hometown of Frankford — a rural town of less than 900 residents near the Delaware-Maryland border. 

Some cars still blinked their hazards amid the absence of their owners. Others would remain deserted on the side of the highway for days or weeks. 

All of them are remnants of the Trump administration’s crackdown on undocumented immigrants living in southern Delaware. 

Agents sweep through the roads in the early morning, arresting suspected undocumented drivers and leaving cars behind in their wake, according to resident accounts and social media posts. The drivers’ family or friends are often notified of the abandoned cars through Facebook posts or pictures in private WhatsApp group chats. 

“After a while, you realize why those cars are there and why they’ve been sitting there for more than a week,” Gina said.

The first thought for many immigrants at the sight of an abandoned car, residents say, is now that ICE took the passengers. Not car trouble or a busted tire, but federal agents.

In March, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents escalated their enforcement in a cluster of rural Sussex County towns that are home to scores of immigrants from Mexico and Guatemala.

The crackdown imbued deep-seated fear into immigrant communities along the state border — including Dagsboro, Seaford, Frankford and Millsboro — leading to a complete upheaval of residents’ lives. 

Immigrants who have lived in Delaware for decades — raising children, paying taxes and opening businesses — are now retreating back into the shadows. The fearful conditions, some residents say, are the worst they’ve been in more than 20 years.

Gina, alongside two other women interviewed for this story, asked to only use their first names out of fear of retribution. 

Gina left for college last fall and returned to Frankford for the summer, eager to see her family, reconnect with friends and pick up a part-time job. 

But the new reality greeted her instead. 

She fears the next time she comes home, things might never be the same. 

“The worst scenario would be that everything I left behind is now gone,” Gina said. “I’m going to come back to an empty house.”

‘Incredibly dystopian’ 

In Delaware, administrative ICE arrests of undocumented immigrants have increased by nearly 115% since President Donald Trump took office in January compared to this time last year, according to the Deportation Data Project, a group that collects immigration enforcement numbers. 

There’s been an average of 1.6 arrests daily in the state since Trump took office, according to the data.

Many immigrants no longer leave their homes, except for work. Some completely forgo driving anywhere until the afternoon to avoid the morning traffic stops. Some trade workers have outright refused to drive work vans to job sites — a reaction to ICE agents seemingly targeting commercial vehicles. 

Some Latinos have even begun tinting their windows to avoid being profiled by ICE, police or other drivers on the road. 

Residents have formed clandestine group chats on Signal and WhatsApp to share information about ICE sightings and photos of abandoned vehicles. Every morning, dozens of participants check in from their corners of Delaware, usually writing, “all clean,” if their morning route is clear of law enforcement. 

“This feels […] incredibly dystopian to be almost hiding this way,” said Katy, a 23-year-old Frankford resident. 

The first thing Katy’s parents say when they pass a car on the side of the road is, “poor thing, they took another one.” 

The recent crackdown has completely transformed the family dynamics between Katy and her parents, who have different immigration statuses, as they try to limit their interactions with ICE.

“Don’t go there,” Katy recalled saying to her parents. “Don’t go to Salisbury (Maryland). For anything, tell me and I’ll go.”

Katy has been forced to initiate uncomfortable dinnertime conversations with her parents about what would happen if they were to be taken. She keeps copies of her parents’ work permits, has their lawyer’s phone number, and knows how to open their safe. 

Recently, Katy’s aunt and uncle, who have lived in Delaware for decades, received a letter telling them to report to Immigration Court. The pair abruptly packed up their lives and left for North Carolina.

Katy has become hyperaware of her surroundings. Unusual cars or license plates raise flags in her mind. 

“Where the hell are we?” Katy said. “What the hell have I done to be having to remember cars and plate numbers?”

For Carmen, a 23-year-old Millsboro native, the increased ICE enforcement has turned routine happenings into anxiety-inducing scenarios. 

One afternoon, her dad was taking longer than usual to return home from a job. While a commonplace occurrence, the tardiness now took on a different tone. 

“It’s 6, almost 7 o’clock, and he’s not home, and I’m over here scared,” she said.  “It is scary living moments like this because we’ve never seen it.”

‘That’s the fear’  

Reyna Gilventura’s father lived his life in Southern Delaware within a 5-mile radius. Fears of immigration authorities from his time as an agricultural worker in California lingered.

He might travel to Selbyville once a month for groceries and the laundromat, but that was it. No further. He never crossed that imaginary threshold. 

“That was the trauma he carried,” Gilventura said. 

Gilventura spent her childhood within that same threshold, amid the fearful haze of immigration crackdowns. But the conditions were still never as bad as they are now, she said. 

The consequences of living without authorization in the U.S. have evolved, and a new dimension of fear has emerged for Delaware immigrants. 

The Trump administration has deported people to countries from which they did not come, arrested those who are U.S. citizens and now threatens to detain immigrants in “Alligator Alcatraz,” a detention center in the Florida Everglades. 

“It’s OK if you get deported, it’s fine,” Gilventura said. “How about if you end up dead or somewhere else? That’s the fear.”

There was heavy immigration enforcement on the weekend of Gilventura’s daughter’s quinceañera in Seaford. What she expected to be an overflowing and jubilant coming-of-age celebration became a quieter affair. 

Gilventura even considered canceling the party. She didn’t want to be the reason why someone got in trouble. 

During the event, many guests who had agreed to attend did not show. Gilventura did not ask questions. 

“I knew why,” she said. 

For decades, immigrants said, Delaware was seen as immune to the effects of immigration enforcement and deportation seen across the country. 

The First State — touting just less than 1 million residents — wasn’t California, Texas or Arizona. 

But for many Delaware immigrants, that reality is changing. 

The post ‘Incredibly dystopian’: ICE enforcement upends lives for rural Delaware communities appeared first on Spotlight Delaware.

Why Should Delaware Care?
As the threat of deportation has increased for undocumented residents under the Trump administration, the state and some local jurisdictions have decided to not assist efforts to remove peaceful undocumented people. Those decisions may now come with a cost though, as the federal government has threatened funding cuts to those with such policies.

The Trump administration labeled Delaware, New Castle County and two municipalities as sanctuary jurisdictions that obstruct the enforcement of federal immigration law on Thursday, putting new legal pressures on policies that have shielded some undocumented families in the state.

The city of Newark and town of Camden were both classified as sanctuary municipalities that “deliberately and shamefully” interfere with immigration enforcement, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Delaware was one of 36 states that DHS listed as being out of compliance with federal law following an executive order signed in April.

Under the executive order, federal officials are instructed to find federal funds going to the sanctuary jurisdictions listed and suspend or terminate them as appropriate. 

If places remain sanctuary jurisdictions after they are notified of their status, the U.S. Attorney General and the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security will pursue all necessary legal remedies and enforcement measures to “end these violations and bring such jurisdictions into compliance” with U.S. laws, according to DHS. 

The “sanctuary” classification of Delaware jurisdictions may be due to policies in place at the county and state level that restrict cooperation with federal immigration agents, as well as the reversal of a partnership between Camden police and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). 

The Trump administration’s labeling of Camden — a Kent County town of just over 4,000 residents — as a sanctuary jurisdiction comes just one month after the Camden Police Department became the only law enforcement agency in Delaware to formally partner with ICE. 

Camden police quietly signed a task force partnership agreement with ICE on April 29 that deputized local officers to enforce immigration law. Camden police withdrew from the agreement a week after it was signed, following public backlash and hours after Spotlight Delaware published a story about the agreement. 

Camden is one of hundreds of municipalities and counties that are catalogued in the DHS list published under an April 28 executive order that requires a list of sanctuary jurisdictions to be maintained by the U.S. Attorney General and the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. 

Gov. Matt Meyer, New Castle County, Camden and Newark officials could not be immediately reached for comment on Thursday night.

The Trump administration has previously retaliated against “sanctuary” jurisdictions in the past by suing them and threatening to withhold funding from them. Last week, the Trump administration sued four New Jersey cities for their “sanctuary” policies that were interfering with immigration enforcement. 

A “sanctuary” jurisdiction is typically a state, county or municipality that has laws or executive orders in place that restrict its cooperation with federal immigration authorities. The scope of the policies can vary, as there is no universally accepted legal or standard definition for “sanctuary” policies. 

The list was put together to identify sanctuary jurisdictions and was determined by factors such as compliance with federal law enforcement, information restrictions and legal protections for undocumented immigrants, according to DHS. 

Each of the listed jurisdictions will receive formal notification of its “non-compliance” with immigration laws and DHS will demand each place to immediately review and revise their policies to fall in line with federal law, according to DHS. 

Why is Delaware considered a ‘sanctuary’ state?

While Delaware has never officially been labeled a sanctuary state, officials have discussed and implemented policies that the Trump administration has considered “sanctuary” policies. 

In January, Gov. Matt Meyer vowed to “protect people” but stopped short of pledging to make Delaware a sanctuary state. 

“We’re going to protect people,” Meyer said at the time. “We’ll have no tolerance for anyone in Delaware going door-to-door or looking for people who are doing no wrong, doing nothing but trying to feed their family, and trying to send them away.” 

A month later, Meyer told Spotlight Delaware that Delaware State Police wouldn’t work with ICE in most situations. 

The governor’s office said it would not use state law enforcement resources to carry out federal immigration policies “unless there is a valid court warrant and an exigent circumstance where the community is at risk,” Misty Seemans, deputy legal counsel with the governor’s office, said at the time.

In 2017, then-New Castle County Executive Meyer signed an executive order restricting county police from working with ICE as well as prohibiting any arrests based on immigration status. In an interview with Spotlight Delaware on Thursday, current County Executive Marcus Henry said he “stood behind” that policy.

In the General Assembly, there’s nearly a dozen bills being considered that would restrict local law enforcement from cooperating with ICE. 

Still, immigration enforcement in the First State has quietly cracked down. 

A Spotlight Delaware analysis of unsealed court records showed that the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Delaware drastically increased the number of criminal cases against people re-entering the country without authorization after previously being deported in the first months of the year.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Delaware later confirmed Spotlight Delaware’s reporting by touting an 800% increase in the number of immigration-related criminal cases that the office has prosecuted this year compared to 2024. 

The post Trump targets Delaware, NCCo, towns for ‘sanctuary’ policies, threatens funding cuts  appeared first on Spotlight Delaware.

Why Should Delaware Care?
Federal immigration enforcement in Delaware has quietly ramped up in the first four months of the year, with criminal charges for unauthorized reentry skyrocketing in 2025. Despite receiving little attention, the escalation showcases the promises of deportation crackdowns on which President Donald Trump retook the White House.

Federal immigration enforcement in Delaware has quietly and drastically escalated in the first four months of the year, with federal prosecutors bringing forth more criminal deportation cases since January than in all of 2024. 

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Delaware has criminally charged at least 29 people with re-entering the country without authorization after previously being deported thus far in 2025, according to a Spotlight Delaware analysis of unsealed court records. 

Last year, the office only charged four people. 

The dramatic uptick in enforcement by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Delaware comes amid the backdrop of President Donald Trump’s second administration, which was successful, in part, by campaigning on the promise of mass deportations and an immigration enforcement crackdown. 

ICE booked nearly 43,000 people into detention during the first three months of the Trump administration, according to the nonpartisan data research nonprofit Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University. 

Conversely, the agency booked just over 24,000 people into ICE detention in the last three months of the Biden administration, according to TRAC. 

In late January, the Trump administration pressured ICE officials to increase arrests from a few hundred per day to at least 1,200 to 1,500, according to reporting from the Washington Post. The quotas came after Trump was reportedly disappointed with the outcome of the mass deportation promises he ran on.  

That led to initiatives like a six-day operation in Florida where over 1,000 people were arrested — over 60% of whom had an arrest or a conviction, according to ICE and reporting from the New York Times. The operation was geared toward arresting people with deportation orders and criminal histories.

ICE deportation operations in the First State have mostly gone unnoticed during the first months of the Trump presidency, with little media attention and no confirmed mass raids.

All of the 29 cases charged in Delaware so far involve men who are currently incarcerated, have been criminally charged and, or, who have been previously deported but returned to the United States.

The escalation of criminal cases against suspected undocumented immigrants, however, indicate that enforcement has quietly ramped up. Illegal reentry cases now represent the bulk of charges filed by U.S. Attorney David Weiss’s office in the first three months of the Trump administration.

Delaware State Police notified ICE of at least two arrests

In March, Delaware State Police notified ICE agents about two separate arrests of suspected undocumented immigrants. In February, Gov. Matt Meyer promised that state police wouldn’t work with the agency in most situations.

The governor’s office said it would not use state law enforcement resources to carry out federal immigration policies “unless there is a valid court warrant and an exigent circumstance where the community is at risk,” Misty Seemans, deputy legal counsel with the governor’s office, said at the time. 

In the March cases, both men had been arrested on criminal changes when their immigration status was checked. One man was arrested for drug dealing-related charges, while the other was arrested for stalking-related charges, according to court records. 

When reached for comment, Meyer’s office referred Spotlight Delaware to the Delaware Department of Safety & Homeland Security and did not respond to emailed questions. ICE and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Delaware did not respond to requests for comment. 

India Sturgis, spokesperson for Delaware State Police, said that both cases involved felony-level criminal offenses and in such cases, where there is a potential threat to public safety, “communication with federal agencies may occur in accordance with applicable law,” Sturgis wrote in an email to Spotlight Delaware. 

Delaware State Police does not proactively contact ICE or participate in immigration enforcement actions that are solely related to a person’s suspected immigration status, according to Sturgis. 

She added that information may be shared with federal agencies, including ICE, in connection with criminal investigations or public safety concerns. 

ICE arrests continue in recent days

On Wednesday, ICE agents with the Dover field office conducted a traffic stop on a Guatemalan man in Sussex County, ultimately arresting him and charging him with unauthorized reentry, court documents show. 

The agents stopped the man, believing he was another person for whom they had an immigration warrant. The man provided agents with a Guatemalan ID card and was arrested after he couldn’t provide immigration documents. 

The man was previously encountered by U.S. Border Patrol near the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas in 2014. The man was deported to Guatemala four days after being picked up by Border Patrol agents. 

On Thursday, federal agents in New Castle arrested a man from Mexico who had previously been deported three times in 2007, 2008 and 2009, according to court records. The man was charged in Delaware District Court with unauthorized reentry after being deported. 

In total, 13 people were arrested for various separate charges, such as driving under the influence and probation violations, before ICE was notified of their arrest by the agency’s California-based Pacific Enforcement Response Center (PERC), according to court documents. PERC notifies ICE field offices nationwide about undocumented immigrants who are suspected, arrested or convicted of criminal activity, so the agency can arrest them.

All of the people who have been charged so far this year are from Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador or the Dominican Republic.  

In April, arrest warrants were issued for two men who were already in prison. One was facing pretrial detention, while the other was a sentenced prisoner at Sussex Correctional Institution. 

ICE has made over 26,000 arrests thus far in fiscal year 2025, which runs from October through September, according to ICE data. Criminal charges against two more men were filed on Wednesday and Thursday. 

The post ICE arrests quietly escalate in Delaware under Trump presidency  appeared first on Spotlight Delaware.

Why should Delaware care: 
Thousands of children have settled in Delaware over the past decade after arriving in the United States without a parent. Most of them have come from Central American countries that have been afflicted by escalating violence. What happens to them could impact communities, schools and the political landscape across the state.

Children who arrived in Delaware from outside the United States in recent years may have to represent themselves in immigration court after the Trump administration slashed hundreds of thousands of dollars last month that had been allocated to pay for lawyers for kids who had entered the country without a parent.

The decision has left Delaware nonprofits who provide immigration services reeling, and prompted some immediate layoffs at one local organization.

Among those who have lost their jobs is Joanne McAfee-Maldonado, who had served as a paralegal for the immigration childrens program at Church World Service in Georgetown since January. 

She was laid off on a Monday. She had until Friday to clear her caseload. 

In those five days, she told two children, ages 7 and 17, that she could no longer help them with their immigration cases. Instead, she referred them to other legal aid services in Delaware. 

She cried after they left her office, she said. 

McAfee-Maldonado’s clients were among the more than 26,000 children who had been receiving representation through the Acacia Center for Justice and its legal service providers across the country. Those include Church World Service and La Esperanza Community Center in Delaware. 

The Trump administration’s March 21 order cancelled part of a $200-million contract with Acacia that funds lawyers for unaccompanied children.

In a letter to Acacia announcing the decision, Trump administration officials said the contract was terminated “for the Government’s convenience,” according to reporting from the Associated Press. 

A U.S. Department of Health and Human Services official said that the department continues to meet legal requirements established by the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, which carves out legal protections for children who come into the country without a parent, in an email to Spotlight Delaware.

The White House did not respond to request for comment sent by Spotlight Delaware.

A shrinking legal industry

The funding cuts could force thousands of children to face the increasingly complex immigration system without a lawyer, increasing their chances of being deported, according to a report from the Congressional Research Service published last year. 

One striking example occurred in New York City earlier this month when a 4-year-old dressed in a tie-dye shirt sat for a virtual hearing with an immigration judge, holding a pink plushy toy, according to a report from Gothamist.   

“Not having legal representation to help (unaccompanied children) navigate this piece of their life makes them even more vulnerable,” McAfee-Maldonado said.

Unaccompanied children are minors who enter the United States without authorization and without an accompanying parent or legal guardian. Last fiscal year, the Office of Refugee Resettlement received 98,356 referrals for unaccompanied children from the Department of Homeland Security.

In Delaware, 3,606 unaccompanied children were released to sponsors from 2014 to 2024.

A total of 456 were settled just last year in the state. 

La Esperanza — one of the state’s largest organizations serving immigrants — oversees legal aid to 60 cases of unaccompanied children. Prior to the federal cuts, Church World Service was managing two. It has scrapped plans to take on three more cases. 

La Esperanza is continuing to manage its current unaccompanied minor caseload with its own funding, despite the federal dollar drought, according to Bryant Garcia, La Esperanza’s acting executive director. 

Prior to the funding cuts, La Esperanza had been eligible to receive up to $260,000 in reimbursements from the federal government to fund its unaccompanied minors legal program, according to Garcia. Now, they must find money elsewhere. 

“We’re still providing the service, but it’s just a matter of making up whatever funding we’ve lost,” Garcia said. “If all that funding dries up in the next coming years, then we can’t continue that work.”

The loss of money means that La Esperanza most likely won’t take on new unaccompanied minor cases, and instead will scrap expansion plans for new staff and offices. 

A Georgetown office shuttered

The Trump administration’s decision to cut money for legal aid to minors adds to other federal austerity actions that, in sum, have caused Church World Service to permanently shutter its Georgetown office — the only location in Delaware — after over a year of operations.

Church World Service was receiving about $335,000 for its unaccompanied minor work prior to the cut, according to Donna Polk, the organization’s office director in Georgetown. The office will close May 9.

The organization is also reducing staff capacity across the U.S. by nearly two thirds because of the federal actions, which include funding cuts to its refugee resettlement programs, according to the group.

In February, the Trump administration first abruptly cut funding for lawyers working with unaccompanied children, but reversed the decision a few days later. A month later, the administration reissued the cuts. 

Following the order in March, a handful of nonprofits sued the Trump administration over the funding cut. A federal judge in California held a hearing on Wednesday on the question of whether to issue a full injunction to stop the cuts.

She has not yet ruled on the question, and so it remains unclear if federal dollars will be reinstated amid the ongoing litigation. 

The post DE nonprofits lose money for immigration legal aid appeared first on Spotlight Delaware.

Why Should Delaware Care?
The Prescription Opioid Settlement Distribution Commission recommends how the state spends a $250 million settlement it won from opioid manufacturers and distributors. Following reports of fraud last summer, the flow of new grants has all but stopped. 

Following a leadership shakeup on a commission responsible for how Delaware spends millions of dollars to fight opioid addiction, there are new legal questions as to whether new oversight can take hold.

Joanna Champney, the state’s top substance abuse director, was appointed co-chair of the Prescription Opioid Settlement Distribution Commission two weeks ago by Gov. Matt Meyer after months of controversy surrounding the program.

It also means staff that previously managed oversight and day-to-day administration of the fund, which were previously handled by the lieutenant governor’s office, would transfer to her office in the Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health. 

Her office would be instrumental in selecting which organizations are nominated for grants, which in some cases have totaled up to $500,000. 

But a member of the commission challenged the move at a recent meeting, questioning if it’s legal for Champney’s office to take control of the embattled fund. David Humes, a member of the full 15-member commission, chairs the subcommittee that reviews the administrative compliance of the government body. 

Is legislation required?

At a Tuesday commission meeting, Humes aired concerns that sparked an hour-long debate over the influence of the Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health in the grantmaking process. 

Now, the commission wants clarification from the Delaware Department of Justice as to whether it’s within the law for staff to be transferred to Champney’s office. 

He argued the commission should remain under the wing of the lieutenant governor based on a 2021 law created to manage the millions of settlement dollars flowing into the state. 

That law designated the commission as a subcommittee of the Behavioral Health Consortium, a board in the lieutenant governor’s office that approves the recommendations made by the commission. It also says the consortium “shall provide administrative support to the commission.” 

“It is my belief that legislation would be required to move the (commission) to the Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health,” Humes said in an email to commission members one week after the appointment. 

In attendance at the meeting was Delaware State Solicitor Patty Davis, who leads the Department of Justice’s Civil Division and has contributed to the commission’s work. 

She quickly dismissed the idea that the staff transition was in violation of the code. 

Davis said the law didn’t include what office the commission staff would land within and since the consortium is not a state office, where the staff goes is “nebulous.”

“Our code is not prescriptive as to where they sit, I’m very comfortable with them sitting with DSAMH,” Davis said during the meeting. “I’m very comfortable with the way that this decision was made.”

She also said the process of approving the grants would remain unchanged and that all final approvals would still go through the consortium.

While Humes said he respected Davis’ opinion on the matter, he still introduced a motion to clarify whether commission staff could be moved to the Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health, which the committee overwhelmingly approved. 

That clarification would be presented to members of the full commission at a March 3 meeting. 

Memo shows change still waits

Spotlight Delaware also obtained a Feb. 5 memo sent by Champney and Attorney General Kathy Jennings, the commission’s other co-chair, discussing the administrative transition between the two offices. 

The memo said an update on the transition would be discussed at a commission meeting in early March. 

It also said Champney’s office was in the process of transitioning employees from the lieutenant governor’s office to the Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health once it has the “authority to do so.”

A spokesperson for Champney’s office said that because the jobs haven’t been transferred to the agency yet, they can’t be filled. 

“Situating oversight of the (commission) staff within DSAMH will also allow for grantmaking personnel to consider how grant applicants’ funding requests align with existing grant awards made by the state using federal funds and how funding requests fit into the state’s continuum of care,” the memo said. 

When asked if the new leadership transition violates the law governing the commission, a spokesperson for the Delaware Department of Justice denied the claim.

They pointed to a piece of Delaware code that said the co-chairs are responsible for “guiding the administration” of the commission. 

“What’s unambiguous here is that these decisions are ultimately up to the governor and the attorney general,” the DOJ said. “The governor has chosen commission leadership that emphasizes expertise rather than station; moving the staffing from the lieutenant governor’s office to DSAMH.” 

Grants have been on pause

Delaware hasn’t awarded any new grants from the opioid fund since last July, when it approved $2 million in three-month extension grants for previous awardees. It came soon after a letter from Jennings called for a pause on grants, claiming the program was “rife with potential for fraud, waste, and abuse.”

Jennings’ letter followed a separate notice from the state’s top auditor that accused a Kent County nonprofit of securing its grant with “fraudulent documentation.” 

Members of the Behavioral Health Consortium, which approves the recommendations from the commission, greenlit the July grants after a meeting that slammed the letter. 

During that meeting, one nonprofit leader called the letter a politically motivated “witch hunt,” due to it being released so close to a heated gubernatorial primary race between then-Lt. Gov. and Commission Co-chair Bethany Hall-Long and Meyer, an allegation the DOJ denied. 

“This is not Monopoly money. These are real dollars that the DOJ fought incredibly hard to secure, and every penny belongs to the public,” a DOJ spokesperson said in an email at the time.

Since then, the state has yet to put forward any recommendations as the commission contended with mismanagement concerns and the fraud allegations. 

Champney’s first major task will be distributing $13 million in grants set aside by the consortium in July. Compared to the previous two grant phases in 2022 and 2023, this new sum would be the largest amount distributed by the commission to date. 

Get Involved
The commission is set to have its first full meeting of 2025 on March 3 at 1 p.m. at the Delaware Technical Community College Stanton Campus or on Zoom.
Find the agenda here. 

The post A new question surrounds Delaware’s opioid fund. Is new oversight legal? appeared first on Spotlight Delaware.

Why Should Delaware Care?
About a quarter of Delaware adults live with a disability and, while voting accessibility in Delaware has improved, many still face barriers to exercising their right to vote privately and in person.

Emmanuel Jenkins drove past a dimly lit school on Election Day in November. His assigned polling place, the Woodbridge Early Childhood Education Center in Greenwood, had no signs, few cars and even less people — it was probably closed, he thought. 

Jenkins, a community relations officer with the Delaware Developmental Disabilities Council, drove to the nearest polling place, a fire station, where he was told he had to return to the school and drive around the back, toward the gymnasium, where voting was taking place. 

There were no signs directing people to the gymnasium and, if there were, people living with low vision would have difficulties finding the polls, he added. It would be difficult for a voter with limited mobility to find and travel to the gymnasium if paratransit dropped them off in the front of the building, Jenkins said. 

“Voting should be at least the one thing that we have no barriers to,” said Jenkins, who lives with cerebral palsy. “It is our right; it is our responsibility, and if we cannot exercise, are we really part of the United States of America?”

About one in four adults in Delaware live with a disability and physical or environmental barriers at polling places are encroaching on their most fundamental civil right — voting. Physical barriers around parking, entrances and exterior pathways may discourage people living with disabilities from exercising their right to privately vote in person, according to advocates. 

In 2024, some voters with disabilities reported improvements in accessibility at polling places compared to past elections, but accessibility issues still persist.

Nationwide, among in-person voters in 2022, the rate of difficulties was over three times higher among people with disabilities than those without disabilities, according to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission 2022 Disability and Voting Accessibility Survey. 

About 20% of in-person voters with disabilities reported difficulties, compared to 6% of voters without disabilities, the survey found. 

During the 2024 elections, the Community Legal Aid Society Inc. (CLASI) continued its years-long effort to survey polling places to ensure they’re accessible to Delawareans living with disabilities. 

Monitors from CLASI surveyed over 90% of all polling locations statewide and over 93% in Kent and Sussex counties, covering 258 locations overall, according to Joann Kingsley, a voting rights advocate with CLASI’s Disabilities Law Program. 

While the final survey results have not been published, the organization is “pleased that preliminary figures suggest improvements in accessibility,” she added. 

Voting should be at least the one thing that we have no barriers to.

Emmanuel jenkins, delaware development disabilities council

John Nanni, who is living with post-polio syndrome and uses a wheelchair, had a “great” experience voting in the 2024 election compared to 2020. On Election Day 2020, a line of voters wrapped around the Crossroads Presbyterian Church in Middletown, Nanni’s assigned voting place. 

Poll workers didn’t pull elderly folks or people living with disabilities out of line to avoid the wait then. But in 2024, workers pulled people living with disabilities out of the long lines and had them enter the building to vote first. 

“I know they don’t do that in a lot of places, but they did at this polling center, which was great,” Nanni said. 

By law, all voting places must be accessible to people with disabilities. All voting places are equipped with a Universal Voting Console, a headset and audio-tactile ballot handheld device that allows voters with low vision and others with disabilities to vote unassisted. 

As a result of CLASI’s 2022 report, the DOE removed 11 locations due to accessibility issues for the 2024 election, according to Cathleen Hartsky-Carter, community relations officer with the Delaware Department of Elections.

Seven locations were removed in Sussex County and four were removed in New Castle County. Polling places are removed from the list if appropriate accessibility changes cannot be made and new locations are added. 

Polling places are open to making accessibility adjustments, but the buildings often don’t have the needed funding to make the facilities accessible on a regular basis outside of Election Day, Hartsky-Carter added.

Accessibility monitored across Delaware 

Joann Kingsley looked down at her phone as the screen lit up her face amid the November election night. She looked up and counted the blue accessible parking spaces at the First Baptist Church of Milford, a bustling polling place she was monitoring for compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). 

Her eyes darted around the parking lot as she rapidly read out criteria for which she was looking.

There was no significant slope, potholes or identifiable cracks in the lot — good. There were over a dozen handicapped parking spaces near the entrance, but they were not identified by vertical signs — not good. 

Kingsley would later find that the church entryway wasn’t wide enough for a wheelchair to fit through without both doors needing to be held open.

Monitors survey parking entrances, accessible parking spaces, exterior pathways, building entrances and the interior voting area for ADA compliance. They then enter their findings into an online survey tool. 

CLASI compiles its findings and presents them to the DOE in order to improve voting accessibility for future elections. 

Signage was a widespread issue at Delaware polls during the 2022 election, especially for directing voters with disabilities to accessible parking, routes and entrances, according to CLASI’s 2022 report. 

Monitors found polling locations without any directional signs, while others had signs pointing voters in the wrong or opposite directions, the report found. Additionally, nearly a third of monitored locations in 2022 had inaccessible parking issues. 

“It is not OK for people to just find a reason not to make change,” Emmanuel Jenkins said. “Voting with barriers will discourage people, and already does.”

Nancy Lemus was impressed by the accessibility capability of her son’s polling place. 

Lemus, a member of the Delaware Developmental Disabilities Council, accompanied her 19-year-old son, Christopher Garcia, who is living with disabilities, to vote for the first time during the 2024 election. 

She didn’t expect the New Castle polling place to have accessible equipment that would help her son be able to make his selections on the voting screen. She went into the polling place to ask if they had the needed accessibility control before she took her son out of the car. 

“I was surprised, I was impressed,” Lemus said. “I went in there with expectations that they wouldn’t have it.”

Lemus said she hoped the accessibility control would be made available at local libraries for people with disabilities to become familiarized with technology before elections.

The post Delaware poll accessibility improved for voters with disabilities in 2024 appeared first on Spotlight Delaware.