A month after month, immigrant supporters called for Montgomery Ferris officials to accept a regulation limiting cooperation with ICE, but officials of the county questioned supporters of submitting applications to urban governments, which control local police departments.
In recent weeks they have adopted this challenge.
Activists work in the town and district of the district to convince each of the 62 municipalities of Montgomery to block their officers before cooperation with federal immigration officials. Efforts consist in the presence of the local police during ice arrests last month.
“The reality is that this happens and will not stop and will deteriorate,” said Stephanie Vincent, the main organizer of Community for Change Montgomery County. “We must now stand together throughout Montgomery and make decisions regarding our local law enforcement agencies.”
The sense of urgency of local policy increased during the second term of President Donald Trump, because the administration undertakes more and more aggressive activities of immigration enforcement.
Supporters say that immigrants in Montgomery will feel safer in interaction with the police, if ice agents are not able to rely on the support of local officers During immigration arrest, he can also put local officials on the Trump administration sight among the threat of obtaining funds from communities that do not cooperate with ICE.
These policies are not modern, local governments, including Philadelphia, began to pass on the policy of the “sanctuary” limiting cooperation with ICE in the first term of Trump. In some communities, such as Radnor and Allentown, these efforts lasted in the second term of Trump, but many local officials were resistant to public shows of Trump administration.
Montgomery’s unit was the focal point of ice activity in Philadelphia The region as Trump tries to fill in its campaign, promising to introduce mass deportations. Supporters reported ice raids in a grocery store in Norristown and reports on arrests in a residential building in Hatfield. Many were outraged last month, when the films from Raid Norristown seemed to show police officers West Norriton helping agencies.
“Protection of our neighbors”
Montgomery’s county officials did not adopt a formal regulation declaring “guest” unit, but officials approved a policy limiting communication between employees of the county and ICE and committing to not honoring applications for prison detention without orders.
These policies do not include other local authorities in the county. And the democratic commissioners of the counties have repeatedly told activists that they would have more influence on other government levels.
“Simply showing up here can not be the only place,” democratic commissioner Jamil Winder told supporters at the July meeting.
At the same meeting, the chairman of the Democratic Board Neil Machija recommends residents to make fears to local (*62*) Congress members, US representative Brian Fitzpatrick and senator Dave McCormick.
“My recommendation is to make sure you have appeared and make sure that they can hear from you,” he said.
In response to Elyse Wechterman, rabbi and a long -time supporter of immigrants, Campaign materials built and a set of tools Instrumenting residents about how to support at local level to take rules. The set includes examples of rules developed by ACLU in Pennsylvania based on the type of commune (district, towns, etc.) as well as letters and testimonies for residents or extensions.
“Families are torn, children are devoid of parental care, and the economic fall in our communities is serious,” we read on the Wechterman tool set. “We can do something to stop it.”
A resident of Abington, Wechterman, set a strategy to exploit in her hometown, reaching the local police head and testifying at the local board meeting last month, calling on the council of commissioners of the district to codify the existing department’s policy in order to avoid working with ice without an order.
Similar efforts begin throughout the unit, because supporters say that they reach selected officials and heads of police asking to update the policy.
Although the goal is to influence changes throughout the whole counties, towns with high immigrant populations and where ICE activity was recorded, they are priority. These communities include municipalities near Norristown, such as West Norriton and East Norriton, as well as Ambler, Lansdale and the surrounding towns.
Jay Lee, spokesmith and communication manager in Weekwho is in favor of Asian Americans, he said that he was working on calling officials in Hatfield and Lansdale to accept such politicians. Lansdale has a huge Korean population of America and, although many of these immigrants are legally in the country, Lee said that the actions of Trump’s administration make nobody sheltered. Although immigration is a federal issue, he argued that Trump’s policy requires a local answer.
“For many of us, it is also about ourselves. Protection of ourselves, protecting our neighbors,” he said.
Local reactions
It is not clear, however, whether the group’s efforts will be successful.
Norristown, which was the ICE activity center in Montgomery, issued a political memorandum in January Explaining that the towns will not honor the detained ICE and that the town’s employees were discouraged from gathering and sharing information about the immigration status of residents.
The West Norriton Supervision Council called for empathy and compassion and condemned federal agents acts In a post on Facebook After the presence of officers during ICE activity in the community last month. In the next position, which was not attributed to commissioners, the unit He explained that the West Norriton Police Department He was not obliged to support enforce the immigration law without a court order. In a specific case, which caused indignation of the community, the post said that the federal authorities asked the agency to maintain the order while giving a tax fraud order.
He arrived on the phone, Commissioner West Norriton, Roseanne Milzzo, Democrat, said that the board is still talking about this.
In Lansdale, the chairwoman of the Democratic Council Mary Fuller said that the district has no formal policy or ordinances regarding cooperation with ICE and is currently not planning to adopt a regulation. She said that if a regulation was proposed, she expected the council “for the protection of the rights of our diverse population.”
Currently, said Fuller, the Department of Police in the district will not be involved in activities related to ice enforcement and will only work to maintain order and prevent the assaults on federal officers.
“Lansdale Borough from its general nature is a friendly community, and the tone is kept by the current council and the mayor of sitting 9 members,” said Fuller We -mail.
If the towns begin to bring ordinances before the management boards, the chairman of GOP in Montgomery Christian Nascimento predicted that he would lead to the opposition. In Delaware, the local GOP used the Radnor’s decision led by the Democrat to undertake cooperation blocking the policy with ICE As a rally scream motivate voters to show city elections in November.
“When you start to enter the city level, that’s where you really hit people where they live,” he said. “This can start activating people who are not so politically active.”
Denisse Arguto, executive director of a group of spokespersons Unids to serve NorristownShe said that she still hopes for the regulation in Montgomery, which codify the changes of the policy they introduced and set an example to leaders in all of the Ferrings.
“Many cities and municipalities follow what the County does,” she said. “It was the reason why we came to them.”
Correction: The original version of this story was incorrectly written by the name Elyse Wechterman.
