READING, Pa. \u2013 As tensions over immigration rise across the nation, many people in Pennsylvania are wondering if U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement could be heading to cities in the Commonwealth next.<\/p>\n
Gov. Josh Shapiro responded Thursday when asked if ICE could be coming to major cities in Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n
“It is something we are prepared for, and I will work to keep people safe, but I will stand up to anyone that undermines that safety,\u201d Shapiro said.<\/p>\n
In Berks County, legislators on both sides of the aisle shared their thoughts.<\/p>\n
“I’m hoping that we collectively are doing all the right things to make sure that ICE is not a frequent visitor to our community,\u201d said U.S. Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, a Democrat who represents the 6th District.<\/p>\n
“I’m wholeheartedly in favor of immigration, but I’m also wholeheartedly in favor of proper vetting and doing it in a lawful way,\u201d said state Rep. Mark Gillen, a Republican who serves the 128th District.<\/p>\n
Houlahan says ICE’s arrival could be a possibility.<\/p>\n
“It’s not clear quite yet how that’s going to happen, but in my opinion, that is being experimented within different parts of the country right now to see what works and what doesn’t work in the usage of those forces in the Department of Homeland Security,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Gillen responded to recent actions taken in Minnesota, including the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.<\/p>\n
“Individuals have lost their lives. That should not be the case,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Gillen referred to his training as a correctional officer.<\/p>\n
“In situations of \u2018shoot\u2019 and \u2018don’t shoot,\u2019 the very last resort is when your life is in jeopardy or you\u2019re trying to protect another life,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Houlahan says if ICE comes to the area, all parties must operate under the law, including agents.<\/p>\n
“That means body cameras, that means no masks, that means making sure that they have an arrest warrant,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Gillen calls for the public to stay calm.<\/p>\n
“You can be passionate about what you believe, but don’t let it cross the line of lawlessness,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
At this time, there is no definitive confirmation that ICE agents will be coming to the region.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"READING, Pa. \u2013 As tensions over immigration rise across the nation, many people in Pennsylvania are wondering if…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":100506,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[349,17670,23070,2443,23080,33,10213,28,30,29,382,380,743,66],"class_list":["post-100505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-berks-county","tag-chrissy-houlahan","tag-department-of-homeland-security","tag-ice","tag-immigration-enforcement","tag-josh-shapiro","tag-mark-gillen","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-politics-of-the-united-states","tag-society-of-the-united-states","tag-u-s-immigration-and-customs-enforcement","tag-united-states"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100505"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100505\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}