Rendell-Street 2.0? | Morning Newsletter

Happy Tuesday, Philly. It’s another gray day, with a chance of showers and a high near 78.

Philly mayors have often clashed with City Council, but Mayor Cherelle L. Parker and Council President Kenyatta Johnson want to change that — hearkening back to the 1990s, when former Mayor Ed Rendell and Council President John F. Street forged an unlikely alliance. Our top story unpacks how Parker and Johnson are trying to bring that dynamic back to City Hall.

Plus, the number of people deported each month from Pennsylvania and New Jersey is up 80%. Immigration lawyers who spoke with The Inquirer say President Donald Trump’s aggressive policies have short-circuited due process.

— Erin Reynolds (morningnewsletter@inquirer.com)

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Could Mayor Cherelle L. Parker and Council President Kenyatta Johnson revive a golden age of City Hall harmony?

At a joint news conference last week, shortly after Council approved the mayor’s next city budget, Johnson said he and Parker were in lockstep — just like former Mayor Ed Rendell and Council President John F. Street in the 1990s.

Rendell and Street famously formed an alliance to push through fiscal reforms that saved Philadelphia from the brink of bankruptcy. They are credited with paving the way for a revitalization of the city. And they didn’t stop there: Rendell went on to become governor, and Street succeeded him as mayor.

The comparison reveals how Parker and Johnson view their dynamic — though it’s far from clear whether they will be able to produce the same kind of results as Rendell and Street.

There are political risks, too, primarily for Johnson. Some in Council do not want a leader who has tied his star to an at-times domineering mayor. The outcome of this year’s budget negotiations has stoked concerns that the legislature may be ceding some of its sway.

Reporter Sean Collins Walsh has the story.

Detaining asylum-seekers and other immigrants with no criminal histories is one of several tactics that President Donald Trump’s administration is now using to ramp up deportations.

The government is also fast-tracking removals, incentivizing immigrants to “self-deport” voluntarily, and enforcing removal orders that had been ignored for years or even decades.

“It used to be, if they had a removal order but no criminal history and nothing else negative … ICE exercises its discretion to say we’re not going to remove this person,” said one Philadelphia immigration lawyer. “Now that’s out the window.”

The new policies have so far helped the Trump administration in its stated goal of increasing deportations.

📈 The number of people deported each month from Pennsylvania or New Jersey exceeded 2,000 in March and was even higher in April — about 80% above the typical month in 2024, before Trump took office.

📈 The number of asylum applications denied each month in Philadelphia more than doubled in April, compared to the monthly average over the last year of Joe Biden’s presidency.

Reporters Max Marin and Samantha Melamed unpack the impact of the government’s new legal strategies. Plus, here’s exactly what the data show about immigration enforcement in the region.

Gov. Josh Shapiro has commuted the life sentence of 71-year-old Marie Scott. She spent more than half a century in prison for murder after she and her then-boyfriend robbed a gas station store and he killed the cashier. For years, Scott’s attorneys have pushed for her sentence to be commuted, citing her diagnosis of stage 2 breast cancer and saying she has exhibited model behavior while incarcerated. When Scott learned that her sentence was commuted, she cried out with happiness, said Rupalee Rashatwar, one of her attorneys at the Abolitionist Law Center.

Calder Gardens will open on the Parkway Sept. 21. Who is designing the art space dedicated to Alexander Calder?

A) Kate Orff

B) Piet Oudolf

C) James Corner

D) Michael Van Valkenburgh

Think you know? Check your answer.

💍 Loving: Jalen Hurts tied the knot (again) with Bry Burrows.

🚻 Glad to see: The restrooms near Independence Hall are reopened to visitors.

🍺 Raising a glass to: These eight breweries on the Main Line.

🏡 Touring: A charming 6-bedroom Second Empire style twin in Germantown on the market for $469,900.

✅ Noting: What’s opened and closed in and around Philly for Juneteenth.

Hint: The unofficial cocktail of the Jersey Shore

MERRIEST PASSION

Email us if you know the answer. We’ll select a reader at random to shout out here.

Cheers to Cindy Froggatt, who solved Monday’s anagram: Neumann University. When twin daughters from Chester attended the private Catholic college, their educational journey became their dad’s, too.

👋 Thanks for starting your day with The Inquirer! Paola will be back in your inbox tomorrow.

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