PA pols uncowed by feds’ prosecution threat over immigration

Until today, the targets of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown were assumed to be immigrants themselves. But on Wednesday morning, Pennsylvania lawmakers learned they are also in the crosshairs: Trump’s Justice Department announced it would prosecute city and state officials who do not help enforce federal immigration policies.

The directive is the administration’s latest salvo aimed at municipalities – and their officials – that have pledged not to cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions by officially designating themselves as sanctuary cities. In Pennsylvania, 10 counties carry this designation, along with the cities of York, Lancaster and Philadelphia – where the director of the Office of Immigrant Affairs, Amy Eusebio, resigned this afternoon.

“President Trump’s threats to target local officials are politically motivated and designed to instill fear,” said Philadelphia City Councilmember Rue Landau via email on Wednesday. “Philadelphia’s leaders should not be intimidated by such tactics. Courts have repeatedly upheld the right of cities to set their own policies regarding local law enforcement priorities, including right here in Philadelphia.”

The Justice Department’s memo was issued after a days-long blizzard of presidential executive orders related to immigration, including measures suspending a program that shelters temporary refugees and attempting to overturn the constitutional right to citizenship for people born in America. The administration has also threatened imminent raids in cities with large immigrant populations, such as Chicago and San Diego, and directed ICE to enter sensitive places, including churches and schools, that have previously been considered off-limits for detention activity.

Landau, a longtime advocate for vulnerable populations, recently introduced a measure in City Council assessing Philadelphia’s readiness for these and other Trump administration initiatives. “Attempts to penalize local governments for upholding welcoming city policies would set a dangerous precedent,” she said, “undermining local governance and democracy.”

The tone from other officials was similarly defiant.  “Arrests and prosecutions are based on probable cause, not on whether you agree or disagree with a political position,” said Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, whose liberal stances have made him the longtime target of Republicans both at home and nationally, said in an email. “Unlike the current president, who this week pardoned or commuted sentences for over one thousand lawfully convicted and sentenced insurrectionists, my office and others will continue to uphold the U.S. Constitution and the rule of law."

The City of Philadelphia, meanwhile, affirmed Mayor Cherelle Parker’s commitment to the 2016 executive order issued by her predecessor, Jim Kenney, which states that the city will not cooperate with ICE detentions of its residents unless there is a judicial warrant. That order “remains in place,” affirmed Ava Schwemler, a spokesperson for the city’s Law Department.

It remains unclear, however, whether local resistance can ultimately protect the commonwealth’s roughly 900,000 foreign-born residents, of whom some 160,000 are thought to lack legal immigration status. “Instead of executing blanket deportations that harm immigrant communities in Pennsylvania,” said state Rep. Johanny Cepeda-Freytiz, a Berks County Democrat who chairs the Pennsylvania Legislative Latino Caucus, “the federal government should work in good faith with local municipal officials to keep families together and create pathways to full legal status.”