Unauthorized immigrants who are crime victims can get special visas. A new Philly bill aims to hasten the process. | City Council roundup

A new bill by Philadelphia City Councilmember Nina Ahmad would set a 90-day deadline for local authorities to respond to requests for certifications for special visas that protect unauthorized immigrants who are victims of human trafficking and other crimes.

In addition to the 90-day timeline, Ahmad’s bill would establish other guidelines for how local agencies process applications for the special immigration statuses known as U visas and T visas.

“U and T visas are essential for immigrant survivors of human trafficking and victims of crime to advocate for themselves,” Ahmad said in a speech during Council’s meeting Thursday.

U visas were created by federal law to encourage people who fear they could be deported if they interact with law enforcement to report crimes. T visas do the same for human trafficking victims. Both protect immigrants from deportation for four years if they assist law enforcement in investigating the alleged crimes against them.

U visa applicants are required to obtain certification from local authorities proving that they are qualified, and T visa seekers can ask local agencies to endorse their applications to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. In Philadelphia, the agencies that process the applications are the Philadelphia Police Department, the Department of Human Services, and the district attorney’s office, according to Ahmad’s office.

Those offices already have procedures for handling the applications that likely overlap with some of the rules Ahmad proposed. Her bill would establish “a standardized process for U and T visa certifications, including timely responses to requests, confidentiality of requests, [and] guidelines of the grant or denial of request.”

The bill would also create an expedited 21-day deadline for applicants who are in deportation proceedings or are already subject to a deportation order.

Congress capped the number of U visas that can be awarded each year at 10,000 nationally. The federal government receives more than 10,000 applications per year, and it approves roughly that amount annually.

Neither the district attorney’s office nor Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s office, which oversees the police department and DHS, immediately responded to requests for comment on the proposal.

Incinerate and wait: Councilmember Jamie Gauthier on Thursday once again declined to call for a vote on her bill banning Philadelphia from incinerating its trash, saying she does not yet have the votes due to Parker and the operating engineers union lobbying her fellow lawmakers.

“I’m holding the bill because — due to intense lobbying from the mayor and the operating engineers — I don’t have enough support for it,“ she said.

Neither Parker’s office nor the operating engineers’ union immediately responded to requests for comment on Gauthier’s bill.

About two-thirds of the trash that Philadelphia collects ends up in landfills. About one-third is sent to the Reworld Delaware Valley Resource Recovery Facility, a waste-to-energy facility in Chester.

Gauthier, Chester officials, and environmental activists contend that pollution from the facility has led to increased rates of asthma and cancer in Chester, a low-income majority-Black city south of Philadelphia that has become a widely cited example of environmental racism.

» READ MORE: Philly sends a third of its trash to a Chester incinerator. Council members took a ‘Toxic Tour’ to get a closer look.

The city’s waste disposal contracts expire June 30, and Gauthier’s bill aimed to prevent the city from renewing with Reworld.

Gauthier initially planned to call the bill up for a vote in January, but declined to do so after failing to win over a majority of her colleagues.

The administration previously said that it has added a provision to its waste contract solicitation allowing the city to consider environmental impact. But Parker’s administration has opposed Gauthier’s full ban on incineration.

Still, it hasn’t been all bad news for Gauthier’s bill this week.

On Tuesday, Carlton Williams, Parker’s director of clean and green initiatives, said in a Council hearing that the city was exploring temporarily extending the city’s existing waste disposal contracts beyond their June 30 expiration dates to allow the city more time to study the issue.

Gauthier framed that move as a win that could allow the bill’s supporters, dozens of whom have repeatedly testified in favor of the proposal, more time to build momentum.

Parker’s administration, Gauthier said Thursday, is “absolutely moving and responding to the pressure that we created.”

Long live Lankenau: If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then Ahmad and Councilmember Curtis Jones Jr. gave Gauthier a big compliment Thursday.

The pair of lawmakers introduced a bill aimed at blocking the planned redevelopment of Lankenau High School, which is one of 18 school buildings slated for closure in the Philadelphia School District’s controversial facilities plan.

» READ MORE: City Council members are trying to save Lankenau High School from closure with zoning legislation

The bill would change the zoning for the Upper Roxborough environmental-sciences magnet school’s 17-acre campus from residential to a category for the “development and preservation of public-serving institutions” such as schools and libraries.

Gauthier last month proposed similar measures for school buildings slated to close in her district.

Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr. has cited Lankenau’s low enrollment as a reason for moving the school into Saul High School, the city’s agricultural magnet.

But students, teachers, parents, and community members — including Ahmad — have mounted fierce opposition to the plan, which calls for giving the school property to the city to use for affordable housing or job creation.

Class is in session: Council on Thursday approved a resolution honoring the career of Abbott Elementary star Sheryl Lee Ralph, who is the wife of State Sen. Vincent Hughes (D., Phila.).

The couple, who last year renewed their wedding vows in a high-profile ceremony atop the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, were both in attendance for Council’s Thursday meeting.

Ralph in 2022 won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for portraying teacher Barbara Howard on Abbott. She was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her role as Deena Jones in the 1981 Broadway musical Dreamgirls.

Staff writer Anna Orso contributed to this article.