LOWER MERION \u2013 Although there has been only one recent arrest in Lower Merion by the federal law enforcement officers from the Immigration\u00a0and Customs Enforcement, Lower Merion commissioners issued a statement during their committee meetings this week proclaiming that the township does not work with them.<\/p>\n
This is the second time this year that Lower Merion has issued such a statement.<\/p>\n
Prior to the board\u2019s committee meetings this week, Jeremiah Woodring, vice president of the Lower Merion Board of Commissioners, read a prepared statement from the board.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just want to mention that there are times when events in the world, our country, or in our township warrant a response by us, elected officials, to be clear about where this board stands, what the practice of the township is, what values we hold, or simply to reassure our residents that we stand with them. And often in such moments, the commissioners on this board share a common view. When that happens, this board\u2019s practice is to issue a formal statement on behalf of the board commissioners, and that the board unanimously supports. Today, we issue a formal statement on behalf of the board of commissioners about ICE activity,\u201d Woodring said as he prepared to read the statement.<\/p>\n
As part of his statement, Woodring said the township\u2019s diversity makes Lower Merion a tremendous community and that the township recognizes the \u201cfear and uncertainty some in our community\u2014especially those who may not have been born in the US or who have family and friends who hail from outside the county\u2014feel at the reports of ICE behaving unlawfully and violently, and detaining legal immigrants and U.S. citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Board of Commissioners wants to reassure our residents that we will not stand for violence, lawlessness, or persecution of any kind and will do everything in our power to protect and support all of our residents,\u201d according to the statement. \u201cWe expect our residents to be treated lawfully and with respect, and we know that our township staff, and especially the Lower Merion Police Department, stand with us in defense of the public\u2019s constitutional rights and the rule of law.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to township officials, the only reported incident involving ICE in Lower Merion occurred on January 30th on Overbrook Parkway in Penn Wynne when ICE agents detained two men during a traffic stop. Shortly after the incident, Lower Merion police officials said they were not involved in the Penn Wynne arrest.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not immediately clear what prompted the commissioners to issue their latest statement, since no other ICE activity had taken place in Lower Merion since the Jan. 30 incident. ICE enforces federal laws governing border control, customs, trade, and immigration.<\/p>\n
In the commissioner\u2019s statement issued this week, Woodring said, \u201cLower Merion Township does not, and this Board will not, provide resources to ICE agents who\u00a0have not obtained a valid judicial warrant, nor will LMPD enforce civil immigration orders. Likewise, the LMPD has not signed\u2014and, without this Board\u2019s authorization, cannot sign \u2013 a section 287(g) agreement with ICE. This Board will neither initiate nor accept any request to participate in such an agreement.\u201d<\/p>\n
A 287(g) agreement is a formal partnership between ICE and state, local, or tribal law enforcement agencies to help perform specific immigration enforcement duties.<\/p>\n
The township\u2019s statement went on to say they need to recognize that the township\u2019s legal authority over federal activity has its limits and that the police will not interfere with federal law enforcement acting within their legal authority.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOWER MERION \u2013 Although there has been only one recent arrest in Lower Merion by the federal law…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16635,"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-163761","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\/163761","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=163761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163761\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}