Mayor Cherelle Parker defended her governing style during a heartfelt speech Friday, saying she has suppressed the urge to speak frankly about the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigrants in order to protect critical federal funding for city services.
Parker spoke at an annual Black History Month luncheon held at the Union League and sponsored by the Philadelphia Tribune, the nation’s oldest continuously published African-American newspaper.
She listed and praised leading Black community leaders she admires, particularly women like her mentor and City Council predecessor Marian Tasco. She said they each communicated and worked differently, and said they — and she herself — should not be faulted for taking different approaches.
“Each of us have to do it in our way, and I can’t criticize you… [if] the way you fight is not the way I fight, because your gifts and your talents, your role and your responsibilities, they are different from mine, and this is not a time when we can step on each other,” Parker said.
From there she pivoted away from the speech’s main theme and focused on criticisms of her own particular style of leadership and rhetoric, which she defended as the most effective way to accomplish her goals.
“‘You’re the mayor. You’re supposed to be fighting. You lack courage,’” she said, quoting her critics. “Have you known anybody who says Cherelle Parker was afraid to stand up and fight for what she believed in? Have you ever known that to be an attribute of mine?”
The mayor said she had to “fight the way I know how to fight” and deliver tangible results for city residents, particularly the most vulnerable. “They can’t eat hope. Hope doesn’t buy bread. I’ve got to connect them to access the ‘economic opportunity for all,’” she said, referring to her administration’s oft-repeated main slogan.
“I love them so much”
Immigrant advocacy groups have frequently criticized Parker, saying she and the city should take a stronger stance against the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency’s ramped-up campaign of detention and deportation.
The mayor usually responds to questions about her administration’s policies in general terms, without specifically mentioning immigrants, ICE or the Trump administration.
When asked about Philadelphia’s “sanctuary status” in November 2024, for example, she said her administration is “prepared to address issues that will come before us.” More recently, in a December interview with WHYY’s Studio 2, she acknowledged that some people are unhappy when she doesn’t give an “emotional response” to those questions, and said it was fair to say that she didn’t want to pick a fight with the federal government.
At the same time, she has repeatedly pointed out that a 2016 executive order by former mayor Jim Kenney, which limits police cooperation with ICE, remains in place. It bars the city from detaining people for ICE unless there’s a judicial warrant or they have recently been convicted for committing a violent felony. The city has also boosted its support for immigration legal defense programs.
In the speech Friday, Parker cited the “different streams of revenue” coming into the city, an apparent reference to more than $2 billion in various types of federal funding Philadelphia receives annually. President Donald Trump has repeatedly tried or threatened to cut off funding to places he describes as sanctuary cities.
“Who do you think the first people who are in need and getting support from our public health centers are?” she asked the Union League audience, her voice rising. “Who do you think that constituency is? It’s our immigrant and most vulnerable population in the city of Philadelphia. And because I love them so much —”
She paused.
“My pride, my ego, my emotions, this passion and fervor that burns deep inside of me — because I know what I feel and I know what I want to say — but I want you to think about the discipline required for me to — tamp it down, Dorothy Parker, you can’t come out right now, mommy,” she said. Her voice shifted from a near-roar back to a more conversational cadence as she channeled her grandmother Dorothy, who raised her. “I want you to think about the discipline it requires. That’s leadership.”
Can’t afford to “alienate” Republicans
The mayor also defended her relationships with lawmakers who are aligned with the Trump administration or have been criticized by local activists in relation to immigration and other issues.
She listed elected officials she works with: City Council President Kenyatta Johnson, Gov. Josh Shapiro, city’s U.S. House delegation, and, “let me say for the record, because I’ve gotten a whole lot of pushback about this, yes, both of our U.S. senators, Dave McCormick and John Fetterman.”
McCormick, a Republican, supports the federal deportation campaign and has criticized so-called “sanctuary cities” like Philadelphia. Fetterman, a Democrat, describes himself as pro-immigrant, but has been attacked by some in his party for his stances on abolishing ICE, the war in Gaza and other issues.
“When you are fighting in a position that we are in right now, if you think you can alienate anybody…who can add value in one way or another to that fight… you’ve never had to sit where I have had to sit,” Parker said. “It’s nice when you pick up the phone as mayor, and because you were kind to people, no matter what side of the ideological spectrum that they sat on, they still pick up the phone now, even in the midst of the storm. We want to maintain those kinds of relationships.”
“I don’t apologize to anyone for maintaining relationships with people who can help us advance our agenda here in the city of Philadelphia,” she said to applause. “I don’t apologize for it.”
One area where Parker has recently been somewhat more vocal about pushing back against Trump has been in relation to Black history, although the mayor avoids criticizing the administration directly or mentioning the president by name.
She noted during her speech that she had just come from a brief stop at the President’s House Site on Independence Mall, where she observed the reinstallation of an exhibit about George Washington’s slaves and thanked National Park Service employees.
“I don’t believe none of what I hear. I believe all of what I see,” she said. “I was a few minutes late coming in because I went down to the President’s site, because I literally wanted to see the work that was being done to get those panels back up.”
A federal judge last week ordered a set of educational plaques restored to the site after the city sued to reverse the Trump administration’s controversial removal of the exhibit. About half of the 34 panels were put back up before another judge paused the order Friday.
Parker had spoken about the President’s House decision previously, saying she was “thrilled” that the city’s request for an injunction had been initially granted, and thanking McCormick, Fetterman and other officials for their help. “We will not allow anyone to erase our history,” she said.
