Democratic Lackawanna County Commissioner Thom Welby assured a standing-room-only crowd Wednesday that the current board of commissioners will never approve a 287(g) agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
County District Attorney Brian Gallagher and Sheriff Mark McAndrew, both independently elected Democratic county row officers, then confirmed Thursday that their offices won’t enter into those agreements to participate in the federal 287(g) program.
The controversial agreements between ICE and state and local law enforcement agencies grant designated officers limited authority to enforce federal immigration law and perform certain duties otherwise reserved for federal agents. Their use has exploded during the second Trump administration, with a number of local agencies signing on to the 287(g) program’s task force model since President Donald Trump returned to office in January 2025.
Welby’s commitment to oppose any such agreement came during debate Wednesday over a policy proposal commissioners ultimately tabled that would set protocols for potential county interactions with ICE and other federal, state or local law enforcement agencies. Several public speakers who criticized the would-be policy as an insufficient alternative to Democratic Commissioner Bill Gaughan’s proposed “Protect Our Neighbors Act” ordinance specifically pointed to its lack of language addressing 287(g) agreements, among other concerns.
Commissioners have not formally acted on Gaughan’s legislation, which seeks to prohibit any county cooperation in federal immigration enforcement absent a judicial warrant signed by a judge. A sample version of the ordinance says no county agency or agent “shall enter into an agreement … that permits state or local governmental entities to enforce federal civil immigration laws.”
While the tabled policy as presented contains no such prohibition, Welby said Wednesday “these county commissioners will never approve an agreement with 287(g).”
“I can tell you that Commissioner Gaughan would never approve it and I can tell you that I would never approve it,” he said.
Gaughan denounced the agreements early last month, warning they erode trust between law enforcement agencies and the communities they serve. He acknowledged commissioners have no jurisdiction over local police departments but said he’s “unequivocally opposed to any police department in Lackawanna County entangling itself in federal civil immigration enforcement.”
Those remarks followed the newspaper’s reporting that Dickson City Police Chief William Bilinski had unilaterally signed in February an agreement for his department to participate in the task force model of ICE’s 287(g) program without seeking borough council’s approval.
Dickson City Police Chief William Bilinski, standing, speaks at the Dickson City Borough Council meeting on Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (JEFF HORVATH/STAFF PHOTO)
Attorney Liz Kelly of the borough-contracted law firm KingSpry then advised in an early-March memo that Bilinski lacked the authority to sign the agreement with ICE. She also raised questions about whether Dickson City’s council could enter into such an agreement — the body hasn’t publicly expressed a desire to do so — given council’s limited authority under Pennsylvania’s Borough Code.
Council subsequently directed Kelly to notify ICE it hadn’t authorized the 287(g) agreement and that borough police would not pursue participation in the program, Dickson City Borough Manager Cesare Forconi said this week.
An ICE-published spreadsheet of agencies participating in the 287(g) program no longer lists the Dickson City Police Department, which would have been the first law enforcement agency in Lackawanna County to participate.
The Luzerne County district attorney’s office, the Hazleton Police Department, the Schuylkill County sheriff’s office and other local agencies outside of Lackawanna County are among the more than 1,600 nationwide that are participating.
Despite commitments by Welby and Gaughan to never approve a 287(g) agreement, county Solicitor Paul James Walker noted in a recent legal analysis of Gaughan’s proposed ordinance that commissioners “cannot dictate operational policies” to independently elected county row officers, such as the district attorney or sheriff, who have autonomy over their respective offices.
Gallagher, the district attorney, said as much Thursday while noting it’s “critically important” and in the “interest of public safety” for local law enforcement to collaborate and communicate with state and federal partners.
“The commissioners can’t make any policy at all that forces law enforcement or my office or any law enforcement office to do anything,” Gallagher said. “That being said, we are not federal immigration authorities. We are not going to be a 287(g) participant.”
“Neither am I,” Sheriff McAndrew said in a subsequent phone interview.