“And a row officer shall lead them.”– with apologies to Isaiah 11:6
Wednesday’s meeting of the Lackawanna County Board of Commissioners was expected to be packed with citizens advocating for the safety and dignity of their undocumented neighbors and an official nix on county resources being commandeered for federal immigration enforcement.
A parade of familiar faces used the public podium to exercise their First Amendment rights, but one citizen stood out simply by standing up.
“I know this is unusual, but I stand here as a citizen of Lackawanna County, not as county controller,” Gary DiBileo said. In his calm and characteristically soft-spoken way, the elected row officer commended the commissioners for working together on a policy to protect county resources from the Trump Regime’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency and defended the human rights of undocumented immigrants.
Most importantly, DiBileo dismantled the flimsy justification for the terror and violence inflicted nationwide by masked ICE goon squads.
“We all want ICE to do what was originally promised by our government, which is to apprehend the ‘worst of the worst’ illegal-immigrant criminals,” he said. “All criminals, whether they are illegal immigrants or legal U.S. citizens who have not paid a price for their crimes, should be held to account for their actions.
“However, unlike our trained local police, what we have seen are masked federal agents scooping people off the streets, too often without legal warrants and based on the color of their skin. There are political forces that want us to believe that the people crossing our southern border from South America are all rapists, murderers, drug dealers or from insane asylums. That is a lie. The vast majority of people crossing the border are trying to escape famine, poverty, violence, war and natural disasters. Quite simply, they are desperate.”
Desperation was a big draw of Wednesday’s meeting. Citizens who support Commissioner Bill Gaughan’s proposed “Protect Our Neighbors Act” ordinance — submitted in February — were disappointed by a less affirmative alternative proposed by Commissioner Chairman Thom Welby. The two Democrats found common ground in tabling Welby’s proposal for further discussion, an encouraging sign of teamwork between intraparty rivals. It’s late, but it’s a start.
MAGA Republican Commissioner Chris Chermak was also present and uncharacteristically staked out a clear position. He vowed to oppose any legislation or policy that “has a potential to interfere” with any law enforcement agency’s duties. Neither of the Democratic commissioners’ proposals remotely fit that description.
While the county still lacks definitive guidelines for managing an ICE invasion, Welby deserves credit for drawing a personal line against 287(g) agreements. Practically, however, Welby’s declaration comes with an important asterisk: County commissioners lack the authority to enter into agreements that impose upon the management of law enforcement agencies, local, state or federal.
To their credit, Lackawanna County District Attorney Brian Gallagher and Sheriff Mark McAndrew – also elected row officers – told Sunday Times Staff Writer Jeff Horvath on Thursday that they, too, will refuse to commit county law enforcement resources and personnel to a purely federal purpose.
Which sets up an honest, clear-eyed examination of what Gaughan’s “Protect Our Neighbors Act” is and what it is not. It is a basic, sensible defense of the county’s 10th Amendment right against its resources being commandeered for purely federal purposes. It does not declare Lackawanna a “sanctuary county” and cannot usurp ICE authority in immigration enforcement.
Period.
Instead, Gaughan’s ordinance wisely and urgently seeks to protect the county against liability for ICE abuses of power. That the ordinance also affirms the human dignity of undocumented immigrants is a welcome, necessary bonus.
Of course, not everyone in the conference room on Wednesday was interested in honesty, clarity or human dignity. A trio of citizens exercised their First Amendment rights to defend the barbarity of masked ICE thugs with the same stale appeals to fear and loathing of minorities that Trump rode to power. The speakers solemnly intoned the names of victims of violence at the hands of criminal undocumented immigrants and blithely blamed Renee Good and Alex Pretti for their own murders at the hands of masked ICE thugs “just doing their jobs.”
A recent incident in which an undocumented immigrant living in Dickson City was found in a parked car with a 14-year-old girl in Carbon County was referenced as evidence of a wave of foreign criminality rolling into Lackawanna County.
Weatherly Borough Police said Tejpal Kishore, 22, admitted to having sex with the teen multiple times and giving her drugs. He’s locked up in Carbon County on several charges, including statutory sexual assault. ICE placed a detainer on Kishore, who will likely be deported. Bon voyage!
All three pro-ICE speakers used the isolated example to pose the same cynical question: “Do you (we) really want more of this in Lackawanna County?”
The question is so dumb and disingenuous that one must stoop to answer it. Luckily, I get paid to stoop.
The answer, of course, is no. No sane, decent human being wants “more” rape, murder or any other crime in their communities or in anyone else’s. The ringing truth in DiBileo’s comments is clear: If ICE had honored Trump’s hollow promise to arrest the “worst of the worst,” no sane, decent human being would object – provided the accused received due process as guaranteed by the Constitution.
If the Regime was rounding up scores of MS-13 and Barrio 18 gangsters, Fox “News” and other right-wing propaganda mills would run with it 24-7. ICE’s apparent focus on nonviolent undocumented immigrants with no criminal records forces pro-Trump media to work overtime trying to justify the Regime’s brutal crackdown on roofers, farmhands and restaurant workers.
No sane, decent person judges dangerous criminals the same as hardworking, taxpaying people striving for a better life, or sees criminality as a byproduct of nationality. Most undocumented immigrants are guilty only of being here illegally, a civil violation under the law. Conflating that offense with felonies like rape and murder is morally reprehensible and logically ridiculous. Also un-American.
In highlighting Trump’s broken promise and the bigotry behind ICE brutality, Gary DiBileo touched on a simple, increasingly evident truth: The “worst of the worst” aren’t breaking their backs on rooftops, farms and kitchen cook lines.
They’re in the White House breaking the country.
CHRIS KELLY, the Times-Tribune columnist, wishes you and yours a happy, safe Easter, Passover and/or Ramadan. Contact the writer: ckelly@scrantontimes.com; @cjkink on X; Chris Kelly, The Times-Tribune on Facebook; and @chriskellyink on Bluesky.