911 calls from non-English speaking community members in Montco dropped last year as ICE ramped up its operations

Within the past year, since Montgomery County became a hotspot for ICE enforcement, Denisse Agurto has heard from immigrant community members opting to take an Uber to the hospital, fearing making a call to the police, or asking to bring a companion to a courthouse for support.

“Don’t call 911, we don’t feel safe,” Agurto recalled the sentiments of her neighbors.

The community experiences shared by Agurto, executive director at Unides Para Servir Norristown, underscore a potential reason that 911 calls from non-English speakers dropped in Montgomery County last year, especially during months when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, under President Donald Trump’s administration, made high-profile moves in the county and around the country.

A county analysis, shared first with The Inquirer, shows that calls using Language Line, the county’s third-party language translation service for 911 calls, have decreased by 12.4% — 781 calls — between 2024 and 2025.

Among Spanish speakers the Language Line calls have dropped by almost 14%, or 729 calls.

The disparities between years aligned with major ICE operations in the country and Montgomery County — which is home to a significant immigrant population — could signal the chilling effect Trump’s federal immigration enforcement agenda had on public safety last year, including residents’ lack of trust with local law enforcement.

Police departments throughout the county don’t enforce civil immigration orders, according to a letter earlier this year from Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele and the county police chiefs association.

“I think that part of it is that they are scared that calling 911 will mean that they’re going to be asked a lot of questions, and they’re not trusting anyone right now,” said Nelly Jiménez-Arévalo, Montgomery County’s director of immigrant affairs.

Jiménez-Arévalo said the hesitation to engage 911 could lead to less reported crimes for all residents — regardless of immigration status — and that it’s now in the county’s hands to educate community members and mend that trust with emergency services.

“When it comes to public safety, we want everyone to be on the same page, and when a category of the community is not calling and is not using that system, the other ones are going to be negatively impacted by it,” Jiménez-Arévalo said.

The drops in 911 calls were the most drastic in June, July, November, and December of 2025 in comparison to the year prior, according to county data from Language Line, correlating with ICE’s visibility in the county and nationwide.

For instance, in July 2025 more than a dozen ICE agents raided Super Gigante food market in West Norriton and took 14 people into custody as part of a flurry of activity across Montgomery County.

And in December, ICE agents went into Minnesota to begin their highly-publicized operation, which a month later escalated with federal agents killing two U.S. citizens, Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti.

In other states, immigrants have been detained after calling police for assistance.

Agurto, the executive director at Unides Para Servir Norristown, said she has encouraged community members she works with to not be afraid to reach out to 911, but many residents are fearful that ICE could become involved if they seek assistance and they perceive local and federal law enforcement to be working together in some capacity.

Amid residents’ apprehension with law enforcement, her group offers a person to accompany community members in various circumstances, such as needing to make a police report or going to the courthouse.

ICE has used extreme tactics that many local officials in the county have condemned as “brutality.”

“We’re now doing this because of ‘we don’t trust police,’” Agurto said.

The county has also experienced an overall decrease in 911 calls, but the drop in Language Line usage outpaces it. Despite the drop in calls, there was a 3.1% and 2.8% countywide increase in EMS and fire dispatches, respectively, between 2024 and 2025, according to county data. But police dispatches decreased by 2.5%

Examining 911 data was a key priority for Jiménez-Arévalo when she came into her role as director of immigrant affairs in March 2025. She said she had a “mandate” from the county commissioners to zero in on public safety as one of her key focuses. The county spent over a year comparing the data between 2024 and 2025 and is currently tracking the numbers for 2026.

The county has used Language Line for interpreting 911 calls for over 20 years and 83% of its calls utilize a Spanish interpreter. At least one dispatcher employed by the county is bilingual in English and Spanish, said Todd Stieritz, deputy director of public affairs for the county Department of Public Safety.

“We never want somebody to not call 911 to report any sort of emergency for any reason, whether they think somebody else will call, or I’m scared to call, or I don’t have time to call, or I’m distrustful of the 911 dispatchers,” Stieritz said.

Now, for Montgomery County, it’s a matter of outreach to restore community trust.

“I think a lot of this is that people don’t know, and we have a responsibility to educate,” said Board of Commissioners Chair Jamila Winder, a Democrat.

The county has sent out informational fliers — offered in nine different languages — that seek to inform residents on the benefits of calling 911 in an emergency and emphasize that the telecommunicators “are not police officers, federal agents, or other local law enforcement.”

A video sharing similar information was posted to Instagram.

The county also recommended working jointly with police and first responders on “consistent messaging about non-cooperation with immigration enforcement,” according to a slide deck shared with The Inquirer, in addition to expanding language access services and sharing materials with news outlets that non-English speakers frequent.

“We are attempting in this effort to demonstrate a broader commitment to equity language access and inclusive public safety, and we know that it’s not just a one-time effort, that it requires ongoing partnership, and that that can’t be done in a vacuum,” Winder said.

The informational materials also come as Montgomery County continues to enforce a resolution the board of commissioners passed in March that bars ICE from using county property or resources for noncriminal investigations. It also codified that the county won’t enter in a 287(g) cooperative agreement with ICE and restricts county employees from complying in civil immigration enforcement without a judicial warrant or subpoena.

Commissioner Neil Makhija, a Democrat, said educating residents on 911 is yet another measure the county can take as the federal immigration landscape continues to remain out of their control.

“We can’t control that,” Makhija said. “And so, at best, we can let people know that at the local level in Montgomery County we’re looking out for them and we represent everyone and are looking out for the public safety of the whole community.”

Staff Writer Jeff Gammage contributed to this story.