Pittsburgh City Council on Tuesday unanimously voted to bar federal immigration officers from operating on some city property.
City officials acknowledged their powers to curtail U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement are limited. They cannot, for example, stop ICE agents from driving down city streets, pursuing people in public parks or broadly operating in the city.
But the legislation that council approved on Tuesday limits ICE from using city facilities, such as recreation centers or buildings where the city stores equipment. ICE agents cannot use city property as staging areas or access nonpublic areas unless they have a judicial warrant signed by a judge.
“If ICE is doing what the federal government has told them to do, we don’t actually have the authority to interfere, unfortunately,” Councilwoman Deb Gross, D-Highland Park, who sponsored the bill, told TribLive after a preliminary vote last week. “But if they’re asking us to use their space, we can say no.”
Council members unanimously backed the measure. Councilman Bobby Wilson, D-North Side, was not present for the final vote Tuesday.
Council last month approved a measure that prohibits cooperation with federal immigration authorities.
That legislation bars city employees or contractors from asking about someone’s immigration status, bans law enforcement action based on a person’s immigration status and forbids city workers from giving federal immigration officers access to people in city custody. It also forbids the city from entering 287(g) agreements, which allow federal immigration agencies to partner with local law enforcement.
Allegheny County in March similarly voted for legislation that prohibits county employees from cooperating with ICE.
Immigration enforcement actions have raised concerns throughout the city in recent months. Masked agents detained several workers in the Knoxville neighborhood last week. Three employees from the popular shop and restaurant Las Palmas were detained in Brookline in March. ICE agents made an arrest near the Zone 3 police station in Allentown earlier this year. A Haitian woman, Daphy Michel, died in the city after ICE took her into custody and then released her with an electric ankle monitor.