Dickson City Police rescinding ICE agreement it recently entered, mayor says

The Dickson City Police Department recently entered into an agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement allowing borough police to enforce limited immigration authority during their routine duties and perform certain functions of federal immigration officers.

But Mayor Bob MacCallum said Monday that Police Chief William Bilinski is “rescinding” the ICE agreement pending further discussion and a legal review. Reached after the newspaper confirmed the agreement with Bilinski and secured a copy via a Right to Know request, MacCallum acknowledged having discussed the matter with the chief but said he didn’t realize Bilinski would proceed as he did.

“Unfortunately he recently signed it and I didn’t realize,” MacCallum said. “I thought we were going to discuss it and then get some legal advice to look at it, so I just called him now … and he’s calling them up to rescind it.”

Reached shortly thereafter, Bilinski said the agreement is “paused” but noted he wanted to speak with MacCallum again before commenting further.

The agreement itself establishes the Dickson City Police Department’s participation in ICE’s 287(g) program, specifically the program’s task force model, effectively allowing trained local officers to enforce certain authorities otherwise reserved for federal agents. The Dickson City Police Department is the first law enforcement agency in Lackawanna County to enter into such an agreement, even if it proves short-lived.

Bilinski, who said he also discussed the matter with Lackawanna County District Attorney Brian Gallagher, signed the agreement on behalf of his department Feb. 19, days before ICE Deputy Director Charles Wall signed it Feb. 23.

It was not subject to a vote by borough council; council Vice President Robert Hall Jr. said Monday he learned of the agreement for the first time when reached by the newspaper.

“We weren’t even made aware of it,” he said.

Recalling their earlier conversation, Gallagher said he advised Bilinski that participation in the 287(g) program is a policy choice made at the municipal level.

Its ultimate fate notwithstanding, the agreement gives Dickson City officers who complete mandatory training the “power and authority to interrogate any alien or person believed to be an alien as to his right to be or remain in the United States … and to process for immigration violations those individuals who have been arrested for State or Federal criminal offenses.”

It also authorizes those trained officers “to arrest without a warrant … any alien in the United States, if the officer has reason to believe the alien to be arrested is in the United States in violation of law and is likely to escape before a warrant can be obtained,” per the agreement. “Subsequent to such arrest, the arresting officer must take the alien without unnecessary delay for examination before an immigration officer having authority to examine aliens as to their right to enter or remain in the United States.”

ICE would certify in writing the names of local police who successfully complete training and pass required testing. Upon certification, ICE would provide those officers with a signed authorization to “perform specified functions of an immigration officer for an initial period of two years,” the agreement says.

Before MacCullum suggested the agreement would be rescinded, Bilinski described more limited potential enforcement, noting it would allow his officers to detain undocumented individuals with federal immigration warrants if they encounter them in the course of routine police business, such as a DUI stop or retail theft investigation. In those cases the department would contact ICE, which would determine next steps.

“ICE would take it from there,” he said. “We would get direction from them either to meet them somewhere or take the person to a … specialized facility, and they take it from there.”

Noting “we’re not looking to be ICE,” Bilinski emphasized that his officers would not actively seek out undocumented individuals.

“That’s not our intention, that’s not what’s happening, that’s not what we’re doing, that’s not what we’ll be participating in,” he said.

It was not immediately clear late Monday whether Bilinski had formally taken steps to rescind the agreement, but he said earlier in the day that his officers had yet to exercise the limited immigration-enforcement powers it authorizes.

As of Monday, ICE had signed about 1,500 agreements for 287(g) programs with law enforcement agencies nationwide, including several in the Northeast Pennsylvania region.

They include the Luzerne County district attorney’s office; the Milford Borough Police Department and Shohola Twp. constable’s office in Pike County; the Schuylkill County sheriff’s office; and the Pine Grove Borough, Mahanoy City Borough and Mahanoy Twp. police departments in Schuylkill County, per an ICE list of participating agencies.