The federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency will no longer communicate with Upper Darby police officials, the mayor said Wednesday night.
During his comments at the township council meeting, Mayor Ed Brown said ICE has let the administration know they will no longer communicate with police through Superintendent Timothy Bernhardt about their activities in the community.
At previous meeting, Bernhardt said he did have communications with ICE officials, which helped keep families apprised when loved ones were taken by federal authorities.
“As a professional courtesy, they will no longer communicate in any way with us, and let us know when they are operating in our township,” Brown said. “This is scary.”
Brown referred to the municipality’s motto, “The world in one place,” to stress the impact on the community.
He said his administration, council and state elected officials prioritize safety and will do everything in their power to keep people safe.
“Because of the federal focus on immigration by ICE, our large immigrant population is at risk,” he said. “We’ve seen the horrific stories on the news of seemingly innocent people being killed doing something that is legal and called out in our constitution, and that is to protest.”
“We as a municipality, state and country … should be able to protest peacefully and passionately with no risk to our safety,” he said. “Renee Good, Alex Pretti and Parady La should not be names we know, but we know them now because of how they died. They should be alive, their families shouldn’t be mourning their deaths but that is the reality of the world we are living in right now.”
Brown said they have added a resource page to the township website for residents on frequently asked questions about immigration enforcement.
Council heard the first reading of a resolution stating it will not commit township time, funds, efforts or resources toward ICE noncriminal administrative enforcement activities and will not enter into a 287(g) agreement with federal authorities. That resolution will be voted on at the next council meeting on Feb. 16.
While many in the community are opposed to federal actions, at least one resident said officials need to follow the law.
That resident said illegal immigrants in the country are creating an issue that needs to be corrected and correction, “whether you are a parent, law enforcement or government is rarely easy.”
He noted his family hosted an exchange student for a number of years, but when that person’s immigration status changed, he had to go back.
“In my home, we follow the law and the law said you have to go back, and he understood that,” the speaker said, adding the man, who was from China, understood. The family still stays in contact with him and he hopes to visit again in the future.
The other ice
A different kind of ice also took up much of the meeting after the Jan. 25 snow and sleet storm had residents complaining about cleanup operations.
Joe Martin, township director of Public Works, give a presentation on snow removal on the 600 streets in the township.
“It was a big storm. We haven’t had a storm like that since 2016,” Martin said as he went through a PowerPoint presentation that showed the operational plans for the storm.
Crews of 30 working 12 hour shifts operated 20 trucks and two loaders. They had 1,800 tons of salt to start the storm.
He said snow emergency routes were a priority, but once snow comes down at the rate of 1 to 1½ inches per hour they can’t keep up.
He said once temperatures dip below 15 degrees, salt is ineffective and doesn’t break the bond between the road surface and ice on top. During the storm, temperatures in the low 20s went down into the single digits in the following days.
Martin said they communicate with other municipalities about storms and that is how they develop the plan.
“It’s science: Putting salt and brine down is wasting everybody’s money,” he said.
Martin said parked cars are a problem. He said they cannot get plow trucks down streets when vehicles are parked on both sides and at corners.
He said after the storm snow turned to ice, which requires heavier machinery.
He showed a video of a 60,000-pound trash truck sliding on ice, which he said is a safety hazard. He said trash was suspended one day but they are on target to get all missed collections by today.
Bernhardt said nearly 100 vehicles and cars were ticketed and towed from snow emergency routes.
He said they had extra officers working. They worked with their contracted tow operators to work until it became too dangerous for crews to remove vehicles.
Another issue was cars moved from snow emergency routes to other areas that needed to be plowed and once they were snowed in, tow crews were unable to remove them.
“No saving spots,” Bernhardt said when asked about putting a chair on your shoveled spot.
Brown said with continuing cold weather the township will continue to work with Breaking Bread shelter to provide help to people out in the cold through Feb. 10.