A potential Lackawanna County ordinance barring the county\u2019s cooperation in federal immigration enforcement operations is still under review and won\u2019t be introduced for first reading at Wednesday\u2019s commissioners meeting.<\/p>\n
The county confirmed as much in a social media post Tuesday alerting the public to \u201cmisinformation circulating on social media\u201d about what is included on Wednesday\u2019s meeting agenda. The ordinance Commissioner Bill Gaughan proposed earlier this month, calling it the \u201cProtect Our Neighbors Act,\u201d is not, the county said, noting officials discussed the matter at a recent work session.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe proposed ordinance and its language are being studied by the county\u2019s law department,\u201d the county\u2019s post notes. \u201cIt is not up for proposal at this time. There is no Protect Our Neighbors ordinance that will be voted on at the Feb. 18, 2026, commissioners meeting.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gaughan discussed the legislative proposal at a meeting Feb. 4 that featured extensive public commentary by residents, immigrant-rights advocates, faith leaders and others who praised him for his recent scathing criticism of federal immigration crackdowns on moral and other grounds. He made those remarks at a prior meeting last month.<\/p>\n
A sample version of the proposal Gaughan provided explicitly states that federal immigration law is not the county\u2019s responsibility and prohibits county agents or agencies from assisting with immigration enforcement. It also\u00a0says the county won\u2019t support or assist federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement or Customs and Border Protection agents if they request information from the county for immigration-enforcement purposes.<\/p>\n
Among other features, the ordinance would bar county agencies and officials from investigating a person\u2019s citizenship or immigration status for the purpose of immigration enforcement, prevent the county from entering into agreements that permit state or local governments to enforce federal civil immigration laws and prohibit any contract or agreement whereby federal immigration detainees would be housed in the county prison.<\/p>\n
Under the potential ordinance, unless presented with a \u201cvalid and properly issued judicial warrant,\u201d the county would not permit ICE or CBP agents to access a person in the county\u2019s custody, would not transfer any person to ICE or CBP, would not spend time responding to ICE or CBP inquiries and would not permit agents from either agency to use county facilities, information or equipment for investigative purposes related to immigration enforcement.<\/p>\n
The county\u2019s Tuesday announcement that the ordinance isn\u2019t on Wednesday\u2019s agenda \u201cis vital for ensuring public clarity,\u201d it reads.<\/p>\n
Commissioners recognize that \u201cinaccuracies regarding this sensitive issue could lead to unintended consequences or compromise community safety,\u201d it continues. \u201cEnsuring the community has access to accurate information is our highest priority.\u201d<\/p>\n
County ordinances require two readings, with introduction at one meeting and a vote at another. That suggests the earliest commissioners could actually vote on Gaughan\u2019s proposal is March 18, the date of the board\u2019s second meeting in March, assuming it\u2019s introduced for first reading March 4.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A potential Lackawanna County ordinance barring the county\u2019s cooperation in federal immigration enforcement operations is still under review…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":46352,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[201,182,139,28,178,180,179],"class_list":["post-116577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-lackawanna-county","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116577","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=116577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116577\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}