By Jack Tomczuk<\/p>\n
A pair of City Council members are planning to introduce legislation this week intended to restrict U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n
The series of bills, dubbed the \u201cICE Out\u201d package, would cement the city\u2019s status as a \u201csanctuary\u201d or \u201cwelcoming\u201d jurisdiction and place new limitations on federal immigration officers, the lawmakers said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith this ICE Out legislation, we are doing everything within the city’s power to limit ICE activity in Philadelphia and get ICE out of our city,\u201d said Minority Leader Kendra Brooks, who is co-sponsoring the package with Councilmember Rue Landau.<\/p>\n
The exact language of the legislation was not available Tuesday; Council officials said the text will be released upon its formal introduction at the body\u2019s session Thursday.<\/p>\n
A fact sheet produced by representatives from the offices of Brooks and Landau stated that the proposal will ban ICE agents from wearing masks and driving unmarked vehicles, except for \u201clegitimate undercover actions, SWAT teams, and medical needs.\u201d<\/p>\n
The legislation will codify a longstanding city policy, established through executive order, that bans local police and municipal employees from collaborating and sharing data with federal immigration officers.<\/p>\n
In addition, the city\u2019s fair practices ordinance would be updated to prohibit discrimination against someone based on their citizenship or immigration status.<\/p>\n
Should the package be approved, ICE would be barred from using city-owned properties as staging grounds for raids. Agents would also be prohibited from entering libraries, health centers, homeless shelters, recreation centers and other municipal buildings without a warrant signed by a judge.<\/p>\n
Landau said she and Brooks have been developing the ICE Out agenda for months, even before the recent killings of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, which have generated large protests in Philadelphia and elsewhere.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cOur people are afraid<\/a>,\u201d said the Rev. Thomas Higgins, pastor of Holy Innocents Church<\/a> in Juniata. \u201cThey are afraid to come to church. They are afraid to send their children to school. They see what happened to Renee. They see what happened to Alex. And they are afraid that the same thing could happen to them.\u201d<\/p>\n District Attorney Larry Krasner said he and like-minded prosecutors will be teaming up to support Mary Moriarty, attorney for Hennepin County, which includes Minneapolis, amid an ongoing probe into alleged ICE misconduct. More details are expected later this week, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThere will be accountability now. There will be accountability in the future. There will be accountability after Trump is out of office,\u201d Krasner added. “If we have to hunt you down the way they hunted down Nazis for decades, we will find your identities. We will find you.\u201d<\/p>\n Higgins, Krasner, elected officials and immigrant rights advocates gathered Tuesday morning in frigid temperatures outside City Hall to rally behind the ICE Out legislation. Quite a few then marched to U.S. Sen. John Fetterman\u2019s office in Old City to call on him to reject a measure funding the Department of Homeland Security.<\/p>\n