Three Pittsburgh City Council members on Tuesday will introduce a bill to bar the city from cooperating with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, following similar legislation enacted by the county earlier this month.
“Many residents have seen the terror wrought by ICE agents in other places in the country and have demanded action here in Pittsburgh to protect our residents’ safety and constitutional rights,” Councilwoman Barb Warwick, D-Greenfield, said in a news release.
“As we hear about increased ICE enforcement locally, it is our responsibility as a city government to ensure our resources go toward actually keeping Pittsburghers safe, not supporting federal actions which lead to fear and violence.”
The legislation would prohibit city employees or contractors from asking about someone’s immigration status, ban law enforcement action based on a person’s citizenship or immigration status, and forbid city employees from giving federal immigration officers access to anyone in city custody.
The measure would designate certain spaces — like parks and city recreation centers — as “safe community places,” where federal immigration officers would not be permitted in nonpublic areas.
It would further require a report to council and the public on the city’s use of surveillance technologies.
“It’s time for council to take action and ensure that you feel safe in your communities,” Councilwoman Deb Gross, D-Highland Park, said. “The city of Pittsburgh cannot allow federal overreach to keep you from enjoying your community spaces and using your public streets. Public spaces are for the benefit of our residents, and we should protect you from being surveilled, targeted or threatened.”
The legislation would also prohibit the city from entering any 287(g) agreements, which allow the federal government to partner with local law enforcement on immigration enforcement. Some local communities — including Springdale — have inked such agreements.
“Pittsburgh should be a place where people feel safe going to work, taking their kids to school, or accessing city services,” Councilwoman Erika Strassburger, D-Squirrel Hill, said in a statement. “This legislation makes it clear: Our focus is on supporting residents and making sure city government is a resource folks can turn to, not something they avoid.”
The legislation follows a surge nationally and locally in federal immigration enforcement.
ICE last week detained three workers from the popular Las Palmas shop and restaurant in the city’s Brookline neighborhood. An ICE arrest was reported just outside of Pittsburgh police’s Zone 3 station in Allentown this month. Neighbors raised concerns after federal immigration officers violently detained a man in Mt. Washington late last year.
A Haitian woman, Daphy Michel, 31, of Charleroi, died in Pittsburgh earlier this month days after ICE took her into custody and released her with an electronic ankle monitor.
“This legislation is about dignity — it recognizes that fear driven by aggressive or unclear immigration enforcement pushes families into the shadows and makes our entire community less safe,” Jaime Martinez, founder and executive director of Frontline DIGNITY, a Pittsburgh nonprofit that advocates for immigrants, said of the measure set to be introduced this week.
Gross, Strassburger and Warwick are co-sponsoring the legislation.
“By strengthening trust through clarity between neighbors and local law enforcement, we’re choosing a city where everyone can live with security, speak up without fear, and truly belong,” Martinez said.
Mayor Corey O’Connor, Public Safety Director Sheldon Williams and police Chief Jason Lando have repeatedly vowed not to cooperate with ICE. Former Mayor Ed Gainey’s administration had taken the same stance.
Allegheny County Council this month approved similar legislation that bars county employees from cooperating with ICE and prohibits federal immigration authorities from housing immigrant detainees in the county jail.