Editor’s note: The article has been updated with comments from speakers at the rally.
As rumors swirl of a potential U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement surge in Philadelphia, two councilmembers are proposing new restrictions on the activities of federal agents in the city.
Under one measure, all law enforcement officers would be barred from wearing masks or using unmarked vehicles in the city, with exceptions for undercover work, SWAT teams and medical needs. ICE agents would be prohibited from using city-owned properties as staging areas for immigration raids and from entering city buildings including libraries and shelters without a judicial warrant.
Another bill would codify the city’s longstanding “sanctuary city” policy of not participating in ICE’s 287(g) program, under which police officers pull aside jailed people who are wanted for immigration violations, and hold them to be picked up for detainment and possible deportation.
Councilmembers Kendra Brooks and Rue Landau announced the proposed legislation at a raucous rally with immigrant advocacy groups and other elected officials outside City Hall on Tuesday morning.
“When federal agents are terrorizing our communities and executing American citizens in the street, we must take action,” Brooks told the crowd. “ICE is already here in Philadelphia, tearing families apart and forcing people to live in fear. Every day we’re seeing new reports of ICE’s cruelty and violence. I refuse to wait for another person to be publicly murdered before we take action on this issue.”
The measures partly mirror legislation in towns like Allentown and Reading, which passed a non-cooperation ordinance in October, as well as similar policies in effect in other sanctuary cities across the country.
They also reflect heightened concern in recent weeks over the Trump administration’s intensifying immigration crackdowns. Some 3,000 immigration officers are reportedly deployed in Minneapolis and St. Paul, and the recent killing of observers Renee Good and Alex Pretti by ICE agents there have been widely condemned.
“We are here because we know what is right, what is necessary, and because Philadelphia has a responsibility to lead when the federal government refuses to act with respect for the lives of its own citizens, as well as our immigrant neighbors who call this place home,” Landau said.
Immigrants fear leaving their homes
The proposed legislation is urgently needed to protect undocumented immigrants in the city who are living in fear of being detained, several rally speakers said.
Erika Nuñez, director of Juntos, said the group’s rapid response hotline for ICE activity has received hundreds of calls since launching a year ago.
“We have received calls reporting ICE agents using public parking lots and other communal spaces to prepare en masse for an enforcement action, inciting panic in anyone who sees them,” she said. “We get outreach from libraries, clinics, seeking to strengthen community privacy, unsure what more they can do. We get calls from families afraid to visit the doctor, to get a municipal ID, or to call the police, all out of the fear that their information could be used against them and shared with ICE.”
West Oak Lane resident Sandra Bryant-Downie, a home care worker and cleaner, and a member of the National Domestic Workers Alliance, said many of the Black and brown people in her profession are likewise afraid of going out in public.
“We do work that makes all other work possible. What would happen in the city if domestic workers can’t do their job because of ICE aggression?” she asked. “This fear also means that, because they do not stand up for their rights or report abuse in the workplace, it makes abusive employers feel even more powerful because they can use the threat of ICE action to exploit immigrant workers.”
Ahmet Tekelioglu, executive director of the Muslim civil rights organization CAIR-Philadelphia, told a story of a community member who hadn’t eaten in three days because he was afraid to go out to buy food, and called a local imam asking for help.
“The idea of not poking the bear is not one that will fly in this time. We need to learn from the long struggle of civil rights in this country. We need to learn that those that frame Somali immigrants in Minnesota as a threat have come after all of us,” he said. “That’s why we need this legislation in Philadelphia.”
The rallygoers included District Attorney Larry Krasner; councilmembers Nicholas O’Rourke, Jamie Gauthier and Isaiah Thomas; state representatives Rick Krajewski, Malcolm Kenyatta, Chris Rabb, Joseph Hohenstein, Ben Waxman and Tarik Khan; and state senators Nikil Saval and Sharif Street. Brooks also read a supportive statement from Councilmember Quetcy Lozada.
Krasner called ICE agents “a small bunch of wannabe Nazis” and praised the courage of observers who document ICE activity by taking cellphone videos. He also said he expected state prosecutors in Minnesota to bring “justice” to federal agents who have wounded or killed people.
“There will be accountability now. There will be accountability in the future,” he said. “There will be accountability after Trump is out of office. If we have to hunt you down the way they hunted down Nazis for decades, we will find your identities. We will find you. We will achieve justice, and we will do so under the Constitution and the laws of the United States.”
Contrasting approaches to ICE
Landau said she and Brooks have been preparing the legislation for months, but recent events have made now the “perfect time” to introduce the bills.
Social media has also been buzzing with claims that an ICE surge is coming to Philadelphia soon, drawing defiant responses from commenters. While that rumor so far appears to be unfounded, ICE has ramped up detentions in the city over the past year, as it has across the country .
Some local officials, most prominently Krasner and Sheriff Rochelle Bilal, have responded with increasingly pointed warnings to the federal government not to send more officers, and promises to prosecute any agents that commit crimes. Immigrant advocacy groups have led numerous public protests against ICE, including one on Monday and another last week in Center City.
Brooks and Landau, members of City Council’s progressive wing, are among those who have repeatedly raised alarms about ICE. Since last summer, they have been sponsoring trainings on how bystanders should interact with immigration agents and how to help residents at risk of being detained.
Mayor Cherelle Parker, however, has generally declined to comment on the Trump administration’s immigration policies or respond directly to demands that the city do more to advocate for residents at risk of detention and deportation.
During an interview with WHYY’s Studio 2 last month, she was asked about criticisms of her stance. She noted that she’s maintained the city’s12-year-old policy of not allowing police to hand over detained people to ICE — unless they’ve been convicted of a violent felony and there’s a judicial warrant — and defended her non-confrontational approach.
“I lead in a way that is best for me as mayor to protect my city of Philadelphia and all of my people,” Parker said.
Asked by host Cherri Gregg if she was making a strategic decision not to pick a fight with the Trump administration, the mayor said, “You could look at it, Cherri, like that.”
Given her stance, it remains to be seen whether the legislation wins support from Council President Kenyatta Johnson, a close Parker ally, and enough other council members to ensure its passage, and whether the mayor would sign the legislation.
Parker’s office declined to comment, saying that city officials had not yet seen the bills. A spokesperson noted that two mayoral executive orders restricting cooperation with ICE remain in effect.
Banning masks and cooperation
Brooks and Landau said their “ICE Out” legislative package consists of measures covering four areas:
• Identification: Prohibits ICE and other law enforcement agents from hiding their identity with face masks and unmarked vehicles: requires them to display a badge; and creates new penalties for impersonating an officer. There are exceptions for legitimate undercover actions, SWAT teams, and medical needs.
• Cooperation and data: Codifies executive orders banning 287(g) agreements, which allow local police to act as ICE agents, prohibits city agencies from collaborating with ICE, and prevents city agencies from collecting citizenship and immigration status data or sharing any kind of personal data with ICE.
• Public services: Prohibits anyone, including the city, employers, housing providers, or private businesses from discriminating or refusing services on the basis of citizenship or immigration status.
• City spaces: Prohibits ICE from using city-owned properties as staging locations for raids and prohibits employees from granting ICE access to city-owned spaces, including libraries, shelters, health centers and rec centers, without a judicial warrant.
The councilmembers did not mention courthouses among the list of city facilities from which ICE could be barred.
Advocates have demanded that Sheriff Bilal, whose office provides court security, prohibit ICE agents from entering the Criminal Justice Center as they look for immigrants to detain. The sheriff has said that it would require a judicial order to bar the agents, while the First Judicial District has said such decisions are up to Bilal.
The identification section of the legislation resembles a state bill proposed last summer by Saval and state Sen. Amanda Cappelletti, who represents parts of Delaware and Montgomery counties. It would ban law enforcement officials from wearing masks and require them to have visible identification, with certain exceptions.
U.S. House Democrats have also introduced a federal version of the bill.
WHYY reporter Tom MacDonald contributed to this report.
