SCRANTON — Lackawanna County Commissioner Thom Welby forecasted a forthcoming policy proposal pertaining to potential county interactions with federal immigration agents, though the details of the policy and what form it might take remain unclear.
He declined after Wednesday’s commissioners meeting to provide a copy pending further discussion at the commissioners’ next work session, but described it as “very similar” to fellow Democratic Commissioner Bill Gaughan’s proposed “Protect Our Neighbors Act” ordinance that has dominated the public comment portion of recent meetings.
“We do have a piece of proposed legislation dealing with … working with ICE and that issue,” Welby said during Wednesday’s session. “Unfortunately I did not get it to the commissioners and staff members until very late Monday afternoon, not giving them enough time to review it (and) not giving us enough time as a group to review the language that is being proposed. We will be talking about it in the next week or two, and it will be brought up at the next work session to hopefully be presented at the April 1 meeting.”
Lackawanna County Commissioners Bill Gaughan and Thom Welby confer before the commissioners’ meeting held at the county government center in Scranton Wednesday, March 18, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
After Wednesday’s meeting, Welby described the policy as “no less than guidelines, and maybe an ordinance,” but agreed it would establish guidelines for how county employees and officials interact with ICE or other federal agents when it comes to the enforcement of federal immigration law. Asked if it differs in any significant way from Gaughan’s proposed ordinance, Welby said: “I don’t think so.”
The ordinance Gaughan proposed in early February could not and would not prevent federal agents from enforcing immigration law in the county, but seeks instead to prohibit the county and its employees from cooperating with immigration-enforcement actions unless presented with a valid judicial warrant signed by a judge. Gaughan’s proposal would otherwise prohibit the county from sharing information with ICE or Customs and Border Protection agents and bar agents from using county facilities, information or equipment for investigative purposes related to immigration enforcement.
Lackawanna County Commissioner Chris Chermak listens to public comment during the commissioners’ meeting held at the county government center in Scranton Wednesday, March 18, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Gaughan briefly addressed Welby’s pending proposal Wednesday, drawing distinctions between it and his own.
“First of all I think that we share the same goal, and that is to protect our residents, support our employees and make sure the county is acting within the law,” Gaughan said. “So the difference here is not the goal, it’s the approach. The policy that Commissioner Welby has circulated I believe is internal guidance. It tells employees how to respond in certain situations and I believe that that has value, but it ultimately, in my opinion, leaves the decisions up to interpretation.”
“It does not create clear, enforceable boundaries, and I believe that the Protect Our Neighbors ordinance that I put forward with the help of the Community Justice Project and the Pennsylvania Immigration Project … does do that,” Gaughan continued. “I am happy to have the conversation and discuss those differences with Commissioner Welby, but I hope that the Protect Our Neighbors ordinance does end up on the agenda because I do feel very, very strongly about it.”
Commissioners have yet to formally introduce Gaughan’s proposed ordinance, a sample version of which was the subject of an internal legal review.
Following that review, county Solicitor Paul James Walker warned in a recent confidential memo to commissioners that adopting the sample ordinance as written “carries significant risks” for the county, including possible exposure to civil litigation and even the “potential criminal prosecution of officials.”
Members of the Farmworker Legal Aid Clinic at Villanova University’s Charles Widger School of Law disputed elements of Walker’s memo in a recent letter to the commissioners obtained by the newspaper. The letter from clinic Director Caitlin Barry and certified legal interns Leah Tabor and Alexandra Labonte effectively amounts to an outside legal analysis and argues Gaughan’s proposed ordinance “does not materially increase the County’s exposure to civil litigation and is unlikely to subject County officials to criminal prosecution.”
The different analyses notwithstanding, Walker’s memo wouldn’t be public at all had Gaughan not unilaterally sent it to local journalists earlier this month after failing to convince his colleagues to waive attorney-client privilege and release it in the interest of transparency.
Gaughan declined Wednesday to provide a copy of Welby’s pending policy proposal, but reiterated he stands behind his original Protect Our Neighbors legislation. The meeting’s public speakers overwhelmingly backed it as well.
Among them was Amanda Karpiak, 20, a Scranton High School graduate currently attending the University of Scranton. She joined a chorus of speakers who’ve seized the opportunity in recent weeks to express their outrage over ICE’s aggressive and controversial enforcement tactics.
Amanda Karpiak, of Scranton, speaks in favor of the ‘Protect Our Neighbors Act’ during the commissioners’ meeting held at the county government center in Scranton Wednesday, March 18, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
“I’m here to say I support the Protect Our Neighbors Act, and for those of you who might be on the fence about passing this act — like fearing backlash from the federal government or for some other reason I can’t really comprehend — I just want to say that now is not the time for cowardice,” Karpiak said. “Now is not the time for meekness and now is not the time for concessions.”
“We need to draw hard lines against the abuses and constitutional violations that we’ve been seeing across the country, and we need to stand up both within and outside of government,” she continued. “We’re all caring citizens here. We’re all neighbors and friends. If we can’t draw a hard line against ICE as a county after all they’re doing and after all they’ve done, what’s the point of government? … It’s hard to have faith in the government right now, and you have the opportunity to restore a little bit of it by passing this ordinance.”
The next commissioners work session is March 25. The next public commissioners meeting is April 1.