Philly tells federal court the Trump administration can’t force it to collaborate with ICE
Attorneys for city officials asked a federal judge to toss out the Department of Justice's challenge to a city ordinance that prohibits city agencies and employees from honoring immigration detainers.
President Donald Trump’s administration can’t demand that Philadelphia officials assist his deportation agenda and enforce federal immigration law, the city told a judge Tuesday.
Attorneys for the city and local officials asked U.S. District Judge Chad F. Kenney to toss out the Department of Justice’s challenge to an ordinance that prohibits Philadelphia agencies and employees from honoring immigration detainers.
“The federal government cannot conscript City employees as its agents, including by ordering them to keep an individual in custody, solely to assist with federal immigration enforcement,” the city’s motion said.
The Trump administration’s position in the case runs afoul of the Tenth Amendment to the U.S Constitution, which prevents the federal government from commandeering state and local governments to enforce federal laws, the city said.
And the Justice Department can’t point to any federal law “mandating” state and local officials assist with immigration enforcement, said the filing on behalf of Mayor Cherelle L. Parker, former City Solicitor Renee Garcia, and District Attorney Larry Krasner.
The city declined to comment on the ongoing litigation. Krasner and the Justice Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The city lost an earlier federal challenge to an ordinance that prohibited law enforcement agents concealing their identity or using an unmarked vehicle, with some exceptions. Kenney, a Trump appointee, ruled in July that the unmasking bill was an unconstitutional attempt by a city to regulate how federal agencies operate.
That decision should have come as no surprise to Parker’s administration. Parker allowed the bill to become law without her signature, following Garcia’s advice that signing the measure “would send an inaccurate signal to the public that the Administration can legally and practically enforce” its provisions.
Garcia has since stepped down from her City Hall position.
The justice department expanded its lawsuit in August to include a challenge to the bill that prohibits honoring immigration detainers, requests by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that a local law enforcement agency keep a person in custody long enough to be handed over to federal agents.
Parker did sign that legislation, which codified a longstanding city practice, along with five other “ICE Out” bills.
The ordinance makes it illegal for a city agency or employee to comply with a detainer by keeping people otherwise eligible for release in custody because of an immigration detainer, an administrative warrant, or suspicion that they violated immigration law.
The amended complaint does not mention Philadelphia’s history of not cooperating with ICE detainers. But with the local law, the city “foreclosed” the prospect of using the mechanism to deport people who were arrested, the suit says.
