ICE deployment could extend to more than 40 states
ICE plans to send about 330 people to cities in more than 40 states, including Puerto Rico. The initiative aims to increase immigration enforcement in both large cities and small towns.
- The Pittsburgh City Council passed a bill that would prohibit ICE from using city-owned property for business.
- ICE officers currently must present a judicial warrant to access non-public areas of city property.
- Advocates and some City Council members have expressed concerns that the new rules are symbolic and unenforceable.
- This follows previous legislation in Pittsburgh and Allegheny County that limited cooperation with local ICE.
Under the new law, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers would no longer be allowed to operate on certain premises in the City of Pittsburgh.
They are still allowed in the city, but a May 12 vote by the Pittsburgh City Council placed restrictions on where they can operate.
These are the new rules.
The new bill would ban ICE from operating on some city-owned land. How does it work?
On May 12, the Pittsburgh City Council passed a resolution prohibiting ICE agents from using city-owned land as a staging area. The new measure would also prohibit employees from storing equipment or using city property as a gathering place, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported.
ICE officers will also be required to present a judicial warrant to access non-public areas of City of Pittsburgh property. The May 12 measure also applies to “safe community locations” such as homeless shelters and rape crisis centers, according to the Post-Gazette.
How will Pittsburgh enforce a new law banning ICE from city property?
The bill, which would prevent ICE from accessing some city properties, does not set clear enforcement guidelines for how the city would respond if federal agents violate the new law, according to the Post-Gazette.
According to the text of the law, it is up to the mayor to decide what happens if the law is violated.
And City Councilwoman Deb Gross said the city is still limited in what it can do, the Tribune-Review reported.
“If ICE is doing what the federal government tells them to do, unfortunately we don’t really have the authority to intervene,” Gross said. “But if they want us to use their space, we can say no.”
Advocates worry Pittsburgh’s law is unenforceable.
Supporters of the new bill said it may not be enforceable, the Post-Gazette reported.
“Something like this could be more symbolic than concrete, actual action,” said Harry Hochheiser, a member of the Pittsburgh chapter of the progressive Jewish activist group Bend the Ark, who was invited to early discussions with the city about restricting ICE’s activities.
Similar concerns were raised in March when the Allegheny County Council passed a bill banning the county’s cooperation with ICE, with Councilman DeWitt Walton calling the bill “basically worthless,” the Tribune-Review reported.
“This council should pass a resolution stating that wherever ICE violates a person’s civil or legal rights and violates Pennsylvania criminal law, we will arrest them,” he said. “Lock them up. That’s what we need to do.”
City Councilor Barb Warwick, a co-sponsor of the city’s bill, said there’s not much Pittsburgh city officials can do “if the federal government and ICE want to step in and wreak havoc in our city like they did in Minneapolis.”
“Nonetheless, I think it’s a valuable historical example to define who we are as a city and define what we allow and what we don’t allow,” Warwick said. “If the federal government wants to rebel against it, they can, but the history books will show that’s what they did.”
Previous bills approved in Pittsburgh and Allegheny except for cooperation with ICE
This is not the first time Pittsburgh has passed legislation related to ICE.
In April, the city of Pittsburgh codified a policy prohibiting the city’s cooperation with ICE. The law prohibits employees and contractors from inquiring about immigration status and prohibits law enforcement from acting on immigration status, the Tribune-Review reported. It also prohibits city officials from providing ICE access to individuals in city custody and prohibits the city from entering into agreements that allow local law enforcement to partner with federal immigration authorities.
A similar bill was approved in Allegheny County in March, when city council members voted to prohibit county employees from cooperating with ICE, according to the Tribune-Review. The law also prohibits ICE and the Border Patrol from holding immigrant detainees in the Allegheny County Jail and prohibits its agents from accessing Allegheny databases or other equipment as part of their work.
ICE is being implemented in more cities and states. Is Pittsburgh one of them?
More than 300 new ICE officers and officers are being sent to more than 40 states and Puerto Rico to increase immigration enforcement across the country, USA TODAY reported on May 8.
Purchase records related to the implementation were for coworking-style offices and desks, not detention facilities.
Pittsburgh is not among the cities scheduled for new ICE deployments. However, two locations in Pennsylvania were scheduled to have deployments: Allentown had seven people scheduled, while Altoona had three.
Finch Walker is a Pittsburgh Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Please contact Walker at FWalker@usatodayco.com. Instagram: @finchwalker_. X: @_finchwalker.
