SCRANTON \u2014 Lackawanna County Commissioner Bill Gaughan denounced agreements allowing local police to perform certain functions of federal immigration officers, warning they erode trust between law enforcement agencies and the communities they serve.<\/p>\n
His remarks at Wednesday\u2019s commissioners meeting followed the newspaper\u2019s reporting that the Dickson City Police Department entered such an agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to participate in ICE\u2019s 287(g) program, specifically the program\u2019s task force model, making it the first department in the county to do so. The status of that controversial agreement was unclear Thursday.<\/p>\n
Dickson City Mayor Bob MacCallum said Monday he didn\u2019t realize Police Chief William Bilinski had signed the agreement, which he did Feb. 19 without seeking borough council\u2019s approval, and that Bilinski was rescinding it pending further discussion and a legal review. MacCallum walked back those remarks Tuesday, when he said the agreement was in a \u201cholding pattern\u201d but would not say it was being rescinded.<\/p>\n
Efforts to reach MacCallum and Bilinski on Thursday were not immediately successful.<\/p>\n
Authorized state and local law enforcement personnel participating in the 287(g) program\u2019s task force model and operating under agreements with ICE have limited authority to exercise powers and duties otherwise reserved for federal agents, such as interrogating suspected noncitizens about their immigration status and arresting people for immigration violations. The task force model \u201cserves as a force multiplier,\u201d according to ICE.<\/p>\n
Gaughan, who proposed and continues to advocate for an ordinance barring the county\u2019s cooperation with ICE in most circumstances<\/a>, referenced the Dickson City example in a broader rebuke of 287(g) agreements he advised other departments to avoid.<\/p>\n \u201cLet me be clear, under the current leadership and operational posture of ICE, I am unequivocally opposed to any police department in Lackawanna County entangling itself in federal civil immigration enforcement,\u201d he said, acknowledging commissioners have no jurisdiction over local police. \u201cICE today \u2026 is not operating as a neutral public safety agency. It has become politicized, aggressive and in many cases reckless in its tactics.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAre we supposed to believe that expanding local participation in the corrupt apparatus that is ICE somehow makes us safer? It does not,\u201d Gaughan continued moments later. \u201cIt erodes trust between local law enforcement and the communities that they serve. It turns municipal police officers, in the case of Dickson City, into extensions of a federal civil enforcement system that is currently operating in ways that many residents, including myself, find deeply alarming. And it places local taxpayers and local governments in the middle of federal political battles.\u201d<\/p>\n He also referenced financial incentives for participating in the 287(g) program\u2019s task force model<\/a>, which offers federal funding for equipment, new vehicles, officer overtime, and salary and benefit reimbursements.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know if any other borough police department in Lackawanna County has been approached, but if they have I would urge the mayors and the council presidents to walk the other way,\u201d Gaughan said. \u201cThis is bad news. Again, we have no jurisdiction over it, but I would hope to God that they would listen to the people in this community that have spoken so passionately over the last month and do the right thing. Don\u2019t enter into a deal with the Devil. You might get a new police car, but you will not have the respect of the people who live here in this community.\u201d<\/p>\n The people he referenced who\u2019ve spoken passionately in opposition to ICE crackdowns under President Donald Trump have done so while backing the \u201cProtect Our Neighbors Act\u201d ordinance Gaughan proposed Feb. 4. It seeks to bar county cooperation in federal immigration enforcement absent a judicial warrant signed by a judge, but has yet to be formally introduced by the commissioners, a precursor to a potential vote.<\/p>\n The ordinance was the subject of a recent legal review by the county solicitor\u2019s office, with Solicitor Paul James Walker producing a \u201cconfidential\u201d internal analysis highlighting \u201csignificant risks\u201d associated with the potential adoption of a sample version of the legislation Gaughan provided last month. Adopting the sample version as written could expose the county to civil litigation and even the \u201cpotential criminal prosecution of officials,\u201d Walker warned in his confidential memo.<\/p>\n Gaughan, who dismissed the latter warning as a scare tactic meant to dissuade adoption of the ordinance, attempted in vain Wednesday to convince fellow Commissioners Thom Welby and Chris Chermak to waive attorney-client privilege and publicly release the document. They didn\u2019t support his motion to do so, but Gaughan unilaterally released it to the media anyway<\/a> Wednesday afternoon \u201cin the interest of transparency.\u201d<\/p>\n That prompted a rebuke from Welby, who said it demonstrates a \u201clack of respect\u201d and \u201cspeaks volumes as to our ability to share anything in confidence with him in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n Walker said he wanted to keep the analysis confidential because, should commissioners ultimately adopt the ordinance as written, \u201cthe memorandum provides a very very clear roadmap for challenges and criticism.\u201d<\/p>\n As debate over the ordinance continues, it remains to be seen whether and when commissioners might ultimately move to adopt some form of the legislation, and how that potential version might differ from the sample version Gaughan originally provided.<\/p>\n Commissioners next meet March 18.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SCRANTON \u2014 Lackawanna County Commissioner Bill Gaughan denounced agreements allowing local police to perform certain functions of federal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":130667,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[1099,201,182,139,28,178,180,179],"class_list":["post-130666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-dickson-city","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\/130666","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=130666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130666\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}