Mayor Cherelle Parker’s administration will start interviewing candidates to lead the Office of Immigrant Affairs
The high-profile post has been vacant since the unexpected resignation of Amy Eusebio, days after President Donald Trump took office in January.
Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s administration this week will begin interviewing candidates to be the executive director of the Philadelphia Office of Immigrant Affairs, a high-profile post that has been vacant since the unexpected resignation of Amy Eusebio days after President Donald Trump took office in January.
Philadelphia Managing Director Adam K. Thiel on Wednesday told City Council that the administration had “a lot of candidates” to lead the office, and that interviews were set to start Thursday evening.
“We want to make sure that we get the best person for that very critical role,” Thiel said at a hearing on the city budget.
Eusebio’s unexpected departure created a vacancy in an office meant to be a liaison to Philadelphia’s immigrant community, just as Trump returned to the White House with an agenda that included mass deportations and taking punitive actions against organizations and local governments that seek to aid immigrants.
Her replacement will have to strike a delicate balance between fulfilling the office’s mission — “to promote the well-being of Philadelphia’s immigrant communities,” according to the city’s website — and staying in line with Parker’s cautious approach to the second Trump administration.
Parker, a moderate Democrat, has avoided directing combative rhetoric at Trump, likely to avoid putting Philly in the president’s crosshairs, and she has faced pressure to be more vocal.
But she has said all existing city policies aimed at protecting immigrants remain in place — most notably, Philly is a so-called sanctuary city, meaning it declines to assist federal immigration enforcement — and Thiel reiterated that commitment Wednesday while being questioned by lawmakers.
“What we’re proposing is to continue the suite of services that we provided as a city with city funding,” Thiel said.
» READ MORE: Mayor Parker’s administration says Philly’s sanctuary city policy remains despite threats from Trump
Councilmember Jamie Gauthier asked Thiel whether the administration would consider a proposal to increase funding for immigrant legal services and move those functions out of the administration and into the Defender Association of Philadelphia, which operates independently from the mayor’s administration and employs public defenders well-versed in serving clients with varying immigration statuses.
Parker’s proposed city budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1 includes a $450,000 increase for the Office of Immigrant Affairs to boost funding to nonprofits that provide legal counsel for immigrants. Advocates have pushed for an even greater increase, to $1.3 million.
Thiel said the administration was open to negotiating funding levels and would consider moving legal services to the public defenders’ office. But he said the administration will wait until Parker names a new executive director before making a decision, adding that those questions would be the appointee’s “first order of business.”
Thiel’s comments largely echoed what Parker’s chief of staff, Tiffany W. Thurman, said at a hearing last month about the potential move to the defenders’ office.
“We’re not opposed to it, but we’re not gonna make a decision until we have the OIA director in place,” Thurman said.
The resignation of Eusebio, who was appointed by former Mayor Jim Kenney to lead the immigration office in 2019, left a major gap at the agency tasked with serving the city’s immigration population, including the estimated 50,000 people in Philadelphia without legal immigration status.
Gauthier, one of Council’s more progressive voices, on Wednesday urged the administration to respond to Trump with more urgency.
“You mentioned we have the same supports in place,” Gauthier said to Thiel, “but the world isn’t the same. The world has changed a lot in the last three months, and there’s terror in the immigrant community.”
Thiel said the city will continue to track the White House’s moves but noted that the federal government’s interaction with Philly residents is “not something that is within our ability to control.”
» READ MORE: How much could Philly lose if Trump cuts funding to cities? Here’s what you need to know.
Councilmember Rue Landau, also a progressive Democrat, held a hearing earlier this year probing the city’s preparedness for Trump’s second term.
“For a lot of us, what is happening to marginalized communities throughout Philadelphia is deeply, deeply felt,” Landau said. “It’s painful, it’s scary, it’s terrifying, and we would hope that our city can respond in a way that’s not erratically emotional.”
Staff writer Anna Orso contributed to this article.