{"id":104501,"date":"2026-02-04T03:11:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T03:11:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/104501\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T03:11:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T03:11:12","slug":"philly-sheriff-rochelle-bilal-faces-demands-to-limit-ice-courthouse-arrests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/104501\/","title":{"rendered":"Philly Sheriff Rochelle Bilal faces demands to limit ICE courthouse arrests"},"content":{"rendered":"

District Attorney Larry Krasner, who has said his office will prosecute ICE agents who commit crimes<\/a>, has called for protections at the Criminal Justice Center. A recent statement<\/a> from the First Judicial District, which oversees Philadelphia\u2019s courts, said that Bilal has \u201csole responsibility\u201d for managing ICE\u2019s presence in the courthouse.\n<\/p>\n

Aniqa Raihan, a volunteer with No ICE Philly, said the meeting with Bilal was a good first step, but advocates want to see \u201cmeaningful action, serious change, that protects our neighbors and everyone who goes to the courthouse.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\u201cOur message to Sheriff Bilal today is to know this,\u201d she said. \u201cWe will not stop. We will continue to show up day after day, week after week, month after month, to demand that you take the steps that are within your power to protect our people.\u201d
\n\"ProtestersImmigrant rights advocates demanded Philadelphia Sheriff Rochelle Bilal limit ICE arrests outside of the Criminal Justice Center at a rally on Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026, in front of the sheriff\u2019s office. (Emily Neil\/WHYY)\n<\/p>\n

Bilal said No ICE Philly organizers have not yet given her any evidence of sheriff\u2019s deputies collaborating with ICE officers. She said she has agreed to a follow-up meeting if they provide her with evidence.\n <\/p>\n

\u201cMost of their demands, they were asking us to do something illegal, which we\u2019re not going to break the law,\u201d she said. \u201cWe operate off the law, and that\u2019s it.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Bilal said there has been \u201cone incident\u201d of an immigration enforcement-related arrest in the courthouse. She said it was an immigration officer working with \u201ca task force that deals with the DEA and the FBI,\u201d and no sheriff\u2019s deputies were involved.\n<\/p>\n

ICE arrests are happening outside of the courthouse, Bilal said.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve been outside because they\u2019re outside, everywhere in this city and other cities,\u201d she said. \u201cBut they have not been inside, doing none of that.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Bilal said she has received backlash to her comments at a press conference in January, when she called ICE officers \u201cfake wanna-be law enforcement.\u201d<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cAnybody that makes a stand against what\u2019s going on around the country, as y\u2019all can see, is being asked to resign,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019ve been threatened. My life has been threatened.\u201d\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"District Attorney Larry Krasner, who has said his office will prosecute ICE agents who commit crimes, has called…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":104502,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[69,71,70,743],"class_list":["post-104501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-u-s-immigration-and-customs-enforcement"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104501","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=104501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104501\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}