ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Lehigh county employees soon will be under strict orders to not work with federal immigration officials without judicial warrants.
Executive Josh Siegel on Tuesday morning announced plans to implement a policy that significantly limits county workers’ cooperation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
It establishes a “clear” process that lays out employees’ obligations and responsibilities when interacting with ICE; in most cases, the agency’s requests will be reviewed by the county’s solicitor to determine whether the county should honor them, Siegel said.
The proposed policy is “about putting up the right barriers and protections in advance of what could be efforts by ICE to come in to attempt to coerce or compel our employees to collaborate” with them, he said.
“Instead of supporting families that are struggling to afford health care, food, and housing, money is going to kidnapping and detaining our laborers, mass deportations."Olyvia Armstrong, Pennsylvania Immigration Coalition political director
It also could protect the county from “tremendous financial liability,” according to the first-year executive.
The county in 2014 paid almost $100,000 in damages and legal fees after federal courts ruled it violated a man’s rights by continuing to detain him in the Lehigh County Jail at ICE’s request though he had posted bail.
Since that ruling, Lehigh County has required ICE to provide a warrant signed by a judge before local officials detain someone at the jail in downtown Allentown for the agency.
Northampton County has a similar standard for detaining people for ICE.
‘Proactive’ policy
Siegel said he has not heard of any instances in which employees have worked with federal authorities without warrants in place since taking office in January.
The new policy — set to be introduced next week for Lehigh County commissioners’ review — is meant to be “proactive and preventative,” with the Department of Homeland Security recently buying two warehouses just outside the Lehigh Valley, he said.
Those purchases in Berks and Schuylkill counties, worth more than $205 million total, are part of DHS’ $38 billion plan to convert commercial warehouses into massive immigration detention centers.
That money comes from the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which President Donald Trump signed into law in September, giving federal agencies $170 billion for immigration enforcement, detention and deportations.
Trump this week signed the “Secure America Act” to provide another $70 billion in funding to ICE and the U.S. Border Patrol.
Olyvia Armstrong, political director of Pennsylvania Immigration Coalition, labeled the new law the “ICE First, Families Last” bill.
“Instead of supporting families that are struggling to afford health care, food, and housing, money is going to kidnapping and detaining our laborers, mass deportations,” Armstrong said. “I know a lot of (other) ways we could use $240 billion.”
Policies like the one set to be introduced in Lehigh County are “what’s best for the public safety and best for the local economy,” Armstrong said.
Lehigh County’s non-cooperation policy, if approved by commissioners, would “make our community members feel more safe” by ensuring employees protect personal information and “know what to do when ICE comes,” she said.
Immigrants “play a critical role in filling labor shortages and reversing population decline,” she said.
Armstrong acknowledged there has “been change and progress” since her mother moved to the U.S. almost 60 years ago.
But still “she does not feel welcome,” Armstrong said of her mother. “Immigrant communities remain under attack.”
