The top lawmaker on the state Senate committee that oversees interactions<\/a> between local, state and federal governments told Fox News Digital that Krasner and Bilal “cannot interfere” with federal immigration actions \u2013 and that his panel would “engage” if push came to shove.<\/p>\n DEMOCRATS SPLINTER ON TRUMP\u2019S IMMIGRATION CRACKDOWN AS GOP UNITES<\/a><\/p>\n “The statements by the Philadelphia district attorney and sheriff are simply empty threats,” said state Sen. Jarrett Coleman, R-Allentown. “The district attorney and sheriff know they can\u2019t interfere, and they won\u2019t interfere with federal law enforcement.”<\/p>\n “If they do obstruct federal law enforcement efforts, the Pennsylvania Senate will be the least of their worries,” he said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n Coleman added that if Krasner’s office instead prosecuted real crime more regularly, “Philadelphia wouldn\u2019t be such a s— hole.”<\/p>\n ICE DIRECTOR FIRES BACK AT ‘SQUAD’ LAWMAKERS OVER ‘POLITICAL RHETORIC’ AFTER FATAL MINNEAPOLIS SHOOTING<\/a><\/p>\n State Sen. Doug Mastriano<\/a>, R-Gettysburg, who previously chaired Coleman’s committee and was the Republicans\u2019 2022 gubernatorial nominee, said Krasner and Bilal do have some ability to intercede on the margins if conflict crops up with the feds \u2013 but that the Constitution prevents truly consequential action.<\/p>\n Both local officials can legally warn federal agents not to break local laws, prosecute state crimes that occur within Philadelphia and can also refuse to expend local resources to assist the Department of Homeland Security, he said.<\/p>\n But, Mastriano suggested the supposed crimes the city officials were referring to were not the state crimes they were billed as.<\/p>\n Philadelphia officials cannot order the arrest of ICE agents for doing their federal jobs or stop “lawful federal immigration enforcement by-decree,” and the supremacy clause of the Constitution<\/a> prevents them from overriding federal jurisdiction or qualified immunity, said Mastriano, a former military strategic studies professor at the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle.<\/p>\n He added that the “Constitution is not optional” and if Philadelphia officials think they can “bully” Washington, they will find out “that\u2019s not how America works” \u2013 while calling Philadelphia’s tactics an “outrageous and dangerous escalation of rhetoric.”<\/p>\n DHS DEMANDS MN LEADERS HONOR ICE DETAINERS, ALLEGES HUNDREDS OF CRIMINAL ALIENS HAVE BEEN RELEASED UNDER WALZ<\/a><\/p>\n Pennsylvania state Sen. Jarrett Coleman. (PA State Senate\/Office of Sen. Jarrett Coleman)<\/p>\n Coleman noted his committee is statutorily empowered to issue subpoenas, hold hearings and request documents relating to oversight of intergovernmental relationships. It can also investigate public officials over misuse-of-authority concerns.<\/p>\n DOJ WARNS CALIFORNIA OFFICIALS TO ‘STAND DOWN OR FACE PROSECUTION’ AFTER THREATS TO ARREST ICE AGENTS<\/a><\/p>\n House Minority Leader Jesse Topper, R-McConnellsburg, added that Philadelphia officials\u2019 comments are “not just hypocritical [but] outright laughable.”<\/p>\n “Instead of focusing on scoring political points and further dividing our nation, those seeking to obstruct federal law enforcement should instead focus their time and resources on keeping their communities secure,” Topper said.<\/p>\n In response to the warning from Harrisburg, Bilal\u2019s office told Fox News Digital that “any individual can be arrested for violating state law in the City of Philadelphia<\/a>.”<\/p>\n “Senator Mastriano and Senator Coleman do not decide who gets arrested in Philadelphia,” Bilal\u2019s office said, referring further questions about the arrest of ICE agents to Krasner.<\/p>\n President Donald Trump and state Sen. Doug Mastriano (Spencer Platt\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n Fox News Digital reached out to Krasner\u2019s office, as well as the Pennsylvania State Police, for their view on the legality of what Krasner was suggesting, as well as Gov. Josh Shapiro.<\/p>\n Krasner and Bilal\u2019s general concerns have had support in some corners of the state legislature:<\/p>\n State Sen. Sharif Street, a West Philadelphia Democrat who is also the state party’s chairman, said he has faith in Krasner’s efforts and “worked hard” to elect him.<\/p>\n “No one is above the law, and I am fully confident that DA Krasner will fairly uphold the law for anyone in the city of Philadelphia \u2013 and anyone who doesn’t believe it will found out,” said Street, who is the son of popular former Mayor John Street.<\/p>\n CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP<\/a><\/p>\n State Sen. Sharif Street said he has faith in District Attorney Larry Krasner’s efforts. (Brian Stukes\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n State Sen. Amanda Cappelletti, D-Plymouth Meeting, introduced legislation<\/a> in November that would prohibit law enforcement officers from obscuring their identities, and called ICE a “symbol of government overreach.”<\/p>\n State lawmakers previously attempted to impeach Krasner for willful neglect of duty and misconduct in office for allegedly failing to enforce existing laws amid his city\u2019s crime wave.<\/p>\n Under then-House Speaker Bryan Cutler, R-Peach Bottom, the effort ultimately failed when Krasner sued to block the proceedings after Cutler\u2019s chamber voted to impeach and move to the Senate for a hearing.<\/p>\n The Democrat-majority Pennsylvania Supreme Court<\/a> ruled the articles of impeachment “constitutionally deficient” and shut down the proceedings.<\/p>\n Charles Creitz is a reporter for\u00a0Fox News Digital.\u00a0<\/p>\n He joined Fox News in 2013 as a writer and production assistant.\u00a0<\/p>\n Charles covers media<\/a>, politics<\/a> and culture for Fox News Digital.<\/p>\n Charles is a Pennsylvania native and graduated from Temple University with a B.A. in Broadcast Journalism. Story tips can be sent to charles.creitz@fox.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles! EXCLUSIVE: Pennsylvania lawmakers warned Philadelphia Sheriff Rochelle Bilal and District…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":86177,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[29336,34,741,28,30,29,69,1427,43130],"class_list":["post-86176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-democrats-elections","tag-donald-trump","tag-immigration","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-philadelphia","tag-police-and-law-enforcement","tag-somali-immigrant-community"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86176","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=86176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86176\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"State](\"https:\/\/a57.foxnews.com\/static.foxnews.com\/foxnews.com\/content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/1200\/675\/Jarrett-Coleman.jpg?ve=1&tl=1\")
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