Bernhardt said he has been visiting houses of worship and other community spaces to inform immigrant residents that the police are “here to protect them,” and urging them to call 911 when needed.
“When you call 911 in this community, the Upper Darby Township Police Department is responding,” he said. “Not immigration, not Homeland Security, not anyone else. We are. And if you need our help, we will help you. We’re not there to answer your immigration status.”
Community members said Upper Darby’s ordinance restricting collaboration with ICE is an ”important first step.” (Emily Neil/WHYY)
Upper Darby ICE ordinance ‘important first step,’ community members say
Victoria Atowide, 24, said she was “proud of Upper Darby” for passing the ordinance. She’s lived in the township since her family immigrated from Nigeria in 2010.
She and other members of her family are U.S. citizens, but the new legislation is important for them as well as immigrant residents who lack citizenship status, she said.
“I’m glad that at least people will not be scared to just walk around their neighborhood,” she said.
Desi Burnette, a statewide coordinator with the Movement of Immigrant Leaders in Pennsylvania and a Delaware County resident, passed out signs reading “Hospitals in, ICE Out” ahead of the meeting. She said the legislation won’t end deportations in Upper Darby, but it is a “really important first step.”
“We’re a township and a community that has a lot of unmet needs,” she said. “It’s a really important statement to say that we’re not going to be using our police force, our property, or any of our resources to support ICE.”
Immigration enforcement detentions have been going on in Upper Darby well before the Trump administration, she said, and funding for ICE has steadily increased over the years under both parties. But under the current administration and with increased funding for federal immigration enforcement, ICE is “on steroids.”
“The result has been here in our community, here in Upper Darby, a lot of workers have been targeted by ICE, separated from their families,” Burnette said. “Our local businesses have been impacted negatively because people don’t want to come around.”
The environment of fear is also impacting young people, she said.
“I think we’re mostly here for our young people because we really believe that no young person or child in our community needs to feel like they don’t belong or that they’re not safe in their own community, which is something that we’ve seen happening,” Burnette said.
People line up to speak at a public hearing for Upper Darby Township Council’s ordinance restricting collaboration with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Sept. 16, 2026. (Emily Neil/WHYY)