Lehigh County Executive Josh Siegel will join with civil rights activists and immigrant rights groups Tuesday to present a policy he’s proposed that would bar county employees from cooperating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents while on the job.
Under the proposed rule, county employees will not be permitted to give out nonpublic or personally identifiable information about any person to federal immigration agencies or officers unless they’re under a subpoena, court order or warrant, or the disclosure was reviewed and approved by the county solicitor.
Employees will be subject to mandatory training on the new rule, and could face serious consequences if they don’t comply, including termination, according to the resolution.
The policy also prohibits the agency from using any county facility as a staging area for operations. Agents would not have access to nonpublic areas of county buildings unless they have a judicial warrant.
“Many jurisdictions in Pennsylvania and around the country have adopted such policies in response to the heavy-handed and often violent tactics deployed by ICE as they round up undocumented residents,” Siegel’s office stated in a news release.
The proposed policy will apply to Lehigh County employees in departments overseen by Siegel’s office, but won’t include court employees or row officers.
It’s not the first time Siegel has targeted ICE in the county. In January, the newly sworn-in county executive announced that he was going to “deport” the agency from a county building over unpaid rent.
The Lehigh County board of commissioners will begin debating the bill at its June 24 meeting.