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Mayor Cherelle L. Parker<\/a>\u2019s administration told a powerful congressional oversight committee earlier this year that it does not endorse statements made by District Attorney Larry Krasner<\/a> and Sheriff Rochelle Bilal<\/a> about federal immigration enforcement, according to a report released Thursday.<\/p>\n The 18-page interim report was released by the Republican-led U.S. House Judiciary Committee less than three weeks before a midterm election when the GOP may lose its majority in the chamber. It\u2019s part of the committee\u2019s probe into immigration policies in Philadelphia, one of several jurisdictions that Republicans<\/a> say have endangered public safety by shielding immigrants from deportation.<\/a><\/p>\n The report shows the Parker administration, which has largely communicated behind the scenes with the federal government about immigration enforcement, attempted to distance itself from Krasner and Bilal. <\/p>\n \u00bb READ MORE: House Judiciary committee criticizes Philly law enforcement over sanctuary policies<\/a><\/p>\n The pair each made comments<\/a> about U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that went viral in January after a federal agent fatally shot a civilian in Minneapolis. Bilal called the agency \u201cfake, wannabe law enforcement\u201d and threatened to arrest agents. <\/p>\n Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel<\/a> at the time released a statement clarifying that his department is in charge of municipal policing and criminal investigations, not the sheriff\u2019s office.<\/p>\n A May letter to the House Judiciary Committee from then-City Solicitor Renee Garcia<\/a> went further, according to the report.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Sheriff and District Attorney of Philadelphia are separately elected officials whose statements are wholly separate and not endorsed by Mayor Cherelle Parker\u2019s Administration,\u201d Garcia wrote.<\/p>\n A spokesperson for Bilal did not respond to a request for comment, and a spokesperson for the city\u2019s law department declined to comment.<\/p>\n In an interview Friday, Krasner responded to the development that Parker\u2019s administration had distanced itself from his comments, saying that he has spoken out against the Trump administration\u2019s deportation campaign because \u201cthese are authoritarian times.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere are a lot of elected officials who have spoken and acted with courage,\u201d he said. \u201cThose of us who stand up and speak out with courage will be judged well by history.\u201d<\/p>\n The Judiciary Committee\u2019s report comes amid already heightened tensions between the city\u2019s law enforcement agencies and a series of unrelated allegations of wrongdoing that have enveloped the sheriff\u2019s office. <\/p>\n Earlier this week, Krasner publicly blamed the police department<\/a> for botching a 2023 murder case against a man accused of fatally shooting Officer Shane Seiber<\/a> on Saturday, drawing a defense from the police force that said it was not the time to be \u201cassigning blame.\u201d<\/p>\n Separately, Bilal is facing the prospect of independent, court-ordered supervision of her office, which has been accused of mishandling deed transfers for years. Earlier this month, the sheriff\u2019s office admitted in court that it had found $20 million<\/a> in sheriff\u2019s sale proceeds that was supposed to have been transferred to the city, but had not been disbursed.<\/p>\n Krasner and Bilal have been confrontational toward federal immigration enforcement, with the progressive district attorney comparing ICE agents<\/a> to Nazis, and Bilal saying that her message to agents<\/a> is: \u201cYou don\u2019t want this smoke.\u201d <\/p>\n Parker, a centrist Democrat, has taken a quieter approach.<\/a> While the mayor earlier this year signed legislation that effectively codified Philadelphia\u2019s \u201csanctuary city\u201d status<\/a>, she has largely avoided directly criticizing President Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s administration and its mass deportation campaign.<\/p>\n For years, Philadelphia\u2019s policy has been that officials do not comply with detainer requests by ICE to hold immigrants who are already in city custody unless ICE produces a warrant signed by a judge.<\/p>\n \u00bb READ MORE: Mayor Parker\u2019s restraint with Trump is both calculation and gamble as the president escalates against blue cities<\/a><\/p>\n Still, despite the Parker administration\u2019s attempts to smooth over the city\u2019s relationship with Washington Republicans, the House Judiciary Committee described Philadelphia\u2019s government as part of the problem, saying the city\u2019s policies of not cooperating with ICE in some circumstances are deliberately obstructive to federal law enforcement.<\/p>\n The committee in May requested a trove of records from the city, police department, sheriff\u2019s office, and district attorney\u2019s office after it accused Philadelphia of shielding immigrants who have committed crimes.<\/p>\n \u00bb READ MORE: What Mayor Cherelle Parker\u2019s administration told the DOJ about Philly\u2019s \u2018sanctuary\u2019 policies in a letter the city tried to keep secret<\/a><\/p>\n Between January 2024 \u2014 when Parker first took office \u2014 and June 2026, the city did not comply with 162 detainer requests from ICE, according to the report, which cited records provided by the city. Over the same time period, the report says, the city received seven judicial warrants, which the report said were either honored or involved people who were transferred to state prison after being convicted.<\/p>\n The committee wrote that the city released a handful of immigrants who had detainers and had previously been charged with crimes, such as assault. Those immigrants were later arrested by ICE, the report said.<\/p>\n However, city officials have in the past said that just because they do not comply with an ICE detainer request does not mean that the person is released into the community. Some continue to be incarcerated in city facilities or are transferred to other jurisdictions.<\/p>\n \u00bb READ MORE: Krasner rips Trump and House Judiciary Committee over \u2018war against immigrants\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n The Judiciary Committee was also deeply critical of both Bilal and Krasner for their offices\u2019 respective policies toward immigration enforcement.<\/p>\n For Bilal\u2019s part, the committee wrote that the sheriff, whose office secures the municipal courthouse in Center City<\/a>, \u201cactively obstructs ICE from making safe immigration arrests inside the city\u2019s courthouse.\u201d The committee wrote that, when ICE has a warrant to take custody of an immigrant, agents must wait to arrest the person until they\u2019ve been transferred from the courthouse to the city\u2019s prison complex.<\/p>\n And the committee took particular issue with Krasner, a frequent target of state and national Republican opposition to reformist styles of law enforcement. The report is critical of the office\u2019s policy of reviewing cases against undocumented immigrants and at times seeking \u201cimmigration-neutral outcomes.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIn practice, this means that prosecutors in Krasner\u2019s office are not prohibited from crafting generous plea deals that avoid immigration consequences for even the worst offenders,\u201d the committee wrote.<\/p>\n