Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, is about to pass a resolution declaring it is not a sanctuary county for illegal immigrants.
The move comes in opposition of the recently passed Trust Act by the city council of Lancaster city, which is located within the county.
The Trust Act instructs police to no longer cooperate with federal immigration enforcement operations when working with illegal immigrants. City workers may not ask about immigration status and must hide that status from others if they learn of it.
Lancaster police generally will not be allowed to engage with agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement(ICE), the Department of Homeland Security, or the U.S. Department of Justice for matters involving illegal immigrants.
Lancaster County Commissioner Ray D'Agostino read the resolution during a work session Tuesday, requesting that municipal and county law enforcement cooperate with ICE officials, seeking the appeal of Lancaster city’s Trust Act, and calling on other municipalities to resolve that they are not sanctuary communities.
The borough of Columbia, Pennsylvania, in the western part of the county has already made that declaration.
Lancaster County Commissioner Josh Parsons previously worked in the Lancaster County District Attorney’s Office.
“I can tell you, as a former prosecutor here in Lancaster County, it is routine to cooperate with federal authorities on all sorts of matters,” Mr. Parsons said. “We had local prosecutors who were designated as Assistant U.S. Attorneys so they could prosecute federal crime, and they would cooperate with federal law enforcement agencies. So when a municipality decides to direct its police in contravention to the law—that they’re not going to be allowed to enforce the law—that does not engender trust.”
Instead, he said, it erodes trust, because it tells people that some laws are worthy of not being cooperated with.
Waste of Time
Lancaster County Commissioner Alice Yoder vowed she will not support the move to declare that Lancaster County is not a sanctuary county.The city ordinance affects just one municipality, she said. It formalizes an already existing practice of making sure that your neighbor in the city is safe if they need to address an unsafe rental condition, figure out a problem with their water bill, or access other city services, she said.
“We know that undocumented immigrants are not any more likely to commit a crime than any other population of people. The language we’re hearing in this is intended to make you afraid and believe undocumented people are dangerous. But really these folks are your neighbors, your friends, and your coworkers,” Ms. Yoder said.
“Wasting time on nonbinding resolutions will likely divide our community or stoke anger in something we should not be spending our time on, in my opinion,” she said. “We have a lot of business that needs our attention, and this issue is not one we have the tools or ability to address in a meaningful way. County Commissioners have a specific role in our government and nowhere in that role is immigration policy. The federal government needs to address this issue.”
Members of the public spoke both in favor and opposition to the plan.
One woman who supports the plan said that when she and her husband lived in Ecuador, they carried papers at all times.
“We respected the country where we lived. We respected their laws,” she said. “We were never offended when they asked for our documentation. We never claimed it was racial profiling.”
A realtor who supports the county measure said she recently helped people from Washington D.C. find a home in Lancaster city. They came to escape the violence in that sanctuary city, she said, but now they may be in for a surprise if those problems are invited into the county.
A man in support of the measure urged county commissioners to give the measure more teeth when it comes to municipalities following the law.
Another woman in support reminded Ms. Yoder that she was elected and took an oath to uphold both the Pennsylvania and U.S. Constitution.
A member of the national immigration advocacy organization CASA spoke in opposition to the plan. CASA has been advocating for the Trust Act in Lancaster for more than a year. Locally, CASA often intervenes in local politics. The CASA representative requested that the commissioners provide statistical data to justify the resolution.
Several people speaking in opposition to the plan invoked religion.
“How many of you have lived through the war? Do you understand what these people are going through? As a so-called Christian nation, we should be looking at the teachings of compassion. I’m disgusted by this. This is fear mongering. … This sows discord in society because everyone is afraid of trusting one another out of fear you’re going to turn them in.”
The three-person commission will meet again Wednesday and vote on the measure, which is likely to pass.
