LOWER MERION \u2013 Lower Merion officials on Wednesday issued a statement regarding recent activity by the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement that took place Jan. 30 along Overbrook Parkway in Penn Wynne. <\/p>\n
According to reports, ICE agents stopped a vehicle along Overbrook Parkway and took two people into custody.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had an incident on January 30th on Overbrook Parkway where there was activity with ICE,\u201d Lower Merion Police Superintendent Andy Block said. \u201cAnd as a result of that, the police department is aware of the community\u2019s concerns following the federal ICE enforcement action on January 30th, during which a vehicle stop resulted in two individuals being taken into custody. We understand that events like this can leave our residents feeling on edge, and we want to provide clarity about the role and our commitment to you and our community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lower Merion police also issued a statement, which Block read into the record during a police committee meeting on Wednesday night. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe Lower Merion Police Department does not participate in the federal 287G program,\u201d Block said as he read from the department\u2019s statement. \u201cThis program allows local police to be deputized as federal immigration agents to perform tasks such as checking immigration status or processing deportations. We do not engage in federal immigration enforcement. If you observe police activity and there are no marked Lower Merion Police units present, we ask you to call 911. We will respond to the scene to verify that legitimate law enforcement activity is occurring. While we respond to the 911 calls, Lower Merion Police Department will not interfere with federal law enforcement acting within their legal authority. It is important for everybody to know that federal authorities are not legally required to notify us, the local police, of their operation. ICE did not inform us of the enforcement action on January 30th.\u201d <\/p>\n
The department\u2019s statement went on to thank the public for what it called the public\u2019s vigilance. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe recognize the passion of our community. Our officers are here to ensure that every resident may safely exercise their First Amendment rights while we strive to maintain peace throughout our community. We want to recognize our residents for their vigilance and care for their neighbors during this time. Your commitment to a safe, inclusive Lower Marion helps us perform our jobs more effectively. And if you have any concerns about activity in your neighborhood, we want you to be we want to be the first to be called on that,\u201d Block said as he concluded the department\u2019s statement on the issue.<\/p>\n
Block also addressed questions from residents about what they should do if someone comes to their door saying they are with ICE or what happens when someone calls 911. <\/p>\n
According to Block, the 911 call goes directly to the county\u2019s call center in Eagelville <\/p>\n
\u201cSo the Lower Merion Police Department will then have an officer dispatched to the location to conduct an investigation to see exactly who\u2019s there and what their standing is,\u201d Block said. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of variables that we don\u2019t know until we arrive, and if they are federal agents or ICE representatives, we want to see what type of documentation they have as far as warrants.\u201d<\/p>\n
Block said they honor the judicial warrants since they are vetted and signed by a federal magistrate. However, they do not recognize the administrative warrants because they don\u2019t know who the approving authority is. <\/p>\n
Block said Lower Merion contacted their regional FBI representative from Fort Washington, and I had a discussion with him about the Penn Wynne activity, and he\u2019s looking into that as well. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOWER MERION \u2013 Lower Merion officials on Wednesday issued a statement regarding recent activity by the United States…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2136,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[182,183,185,184,186,200,139,28,199],"class_list":["post-107028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-lower-merion","tag-local-news","tag-lower-merion","tag-lower-merion-headlines","tag-lower-merion-news","tag-lower-merion-township","tag-montgomery-county","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-top-stories-mlt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107028","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=107028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107028\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}