The Berks County Prison Board’s policy of notifying Immigration and Customs Enforcement and briefly holding people already in jail on criminal charges is a reasonable public-safety measure. It should remain.
This is not an automatic pipeline to ICE for anyone without legal status. Officials check immigration status at booking and again if the person is committed. ICE is notified when someone is identified as removable. A judge has already decided jail or bail.
The county does not book people solely on detainers. The extra hold — 24 hours, or up to 48 in limited cases — simply gives ICE time to take custody after the local criminal process ends.
Releasing these individuals without that short window lets them disappear and dramatically raises the chance of further crime. Transfer at the jail is more orderly and less disruptive than later street arrests.
Judge Scott Lash is right: people in the jail are there because they were arrested for crimes. Pretrial or sentenced, they are in jail on criminal charges.
This rule affects a modest number of people. The 2025 change also protected about $290,000 in federal emergency-management funding. Cooperation with ICE, like cooperation with the FBI or U.S. marshals, is normal.
Compassion for detainees and concern about ICE conditions belong in Washington. They do not require Berks to ignore federal immigration law for people already in local custody.
Scripture calls us to treat the sojourner justly and also to punish lawbreakers. The board struck a balance. Keep the policy.
Mike Cioppa
Womelsdorf