Philadelphia City Council's "ICE Out" bills become law, limiting city cooperation with immigration enforcement
Philadelphia City Council's "ICE Out" legislation limiting city and police cooperation with federal immigration officers is now law after Mayor Cherelle Parker signed six of the seven bills Thursday. Parker declined to sign one, but she did not veto it, meaning it became law as well.
The bills limit city and police cooperation with immigration officers and restrict how the city can use data related to immigration status. City Council passed the bills on April 23, and Parker's office on Thursday said she signed six of them.
The mayor declined to sign Bill No. 260060, which would ban law enforcement officers from concealing their identity, require them to visibly display their badges and prohibit people from impersonating law enforcement officers. She shared a letter from City Solicitor Renee Garcia about that bill. The bill poses "significant legal problems," Garcia writes, because it would regulate the behavior of state and federal officers. A similar law in California was recently found to violate the U.S. Constitution. Garcia also says in the letter that impersonating officers is already prohibited.
All of the bills, including the one Parker declined to sign, will now become law.
The other measures in the package will:
- Make city property off limits for Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity
- Limit Philadelphia Police Department collaboration with ICE through 287(g) contracts
- Put restrictions on how the city can collect and use information and data related to citizenship and immigration status
- Strengthen protections against discrimination based on citizenship and immigration status
Sources previously told CBS News Philadelphia that lawsuits are possible because some of the laws are on shaky legal ground.
"When politicians bar local law enforcement from working with us, we must have a more visible presence so we can find and apprehend the criminals let out of jails and back into communities," ICE previously said in a statement. "The vilification of ICE must stop."
Some of the laws go into effect immediately, and others begin in 60 days.