Pittsburgh City Council members to introduce bill prohibiting ICE cooperation
The Pittsburgh City Council is set to debate whether to pass legislation prohibiting collaboration with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, preventing the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police from assisting or coordinating with federal immigration enforcement.
Following votes by Allegheny County Council and several local municipalities, Pittsburgh City Councilwoman Barb Warwick and two other members say they will introduce legislation on Tuesday to prohibit city police officers from working with ICE.
"First and foremost, it prohibits any collaboration with federal law enforcement around immigration enforcement. In other words, it prohibits collaboration with ICE," Councilwoman Barb Warick said.
The lengthy bill spells out those restrictions. According to the bill, Pittsburgh police may not enforce immigration laws and cannot share information with ICE on suspects detained for other reasons. Conversely, ICE would be required to produce identification when detaining people within city limits.
"We don't want armed gangs of people in masks being able to pull you out of your car just because they have the word police on their back, right?" Warwick said. "So, if you were conducting law enforcement in the city, our Pittsburgh police officers are going to ask you for ID."
The bill is being co-sponsored by Councilmembers Erika Strassburger and Deb Gross, but other members polled privately by KDKA-TV questioned whether it is needed. Pittsburgh is not a sanctuary city, but according to a statement from Pittsburgh Police Chief Jason Lando last week, the bureau already has a policy of non-intervention with regard to ICE.
"Our job is not, and has never been, to conduct immigration enforcement," the statement said. "We do not collaborate with ICE. We do not check immigration status on calls for service. We do not participate in 'roundups.' We are not briefed on ICE operations ahead of time and we often have no idea when and where ICE is operating around the City of Pittsburgh."
Still, Warwick says the bill is needed.
"Policies are great, but we want to be abundantly clear in our legislation what the rules are," Warwick said.
Currently, city police are expected to step in to protect residents and fellow officers. Police are conducting an internal review of an incident at a gas station across the street from the Zone 3 headquarters in the city's Allentown neighborhood last week. It has been alleged that city officers did not intervene on behalf of ICE officers who were overwhelmed by suspects they were trying to detain.
Lando says police must render aid to other law enforcement in trouble and said the officers were not ordered to stand down.
"While our officers did not intervene in this particular situation, I am not aware of any order given that forbid them from doing so," Lando said in a statement last week.
