Law enforcement officers assist with immigration enforcement efforts
PHILADELPHIA – The Trump administration has lost its argument that parts of Philadelphia’s “ICE Out” agenda are preempted by federal law, deciding they are not obstacles to the federal government achieving its immigration goals.
Judge Chad Kenney on Nov. 5 granted Philadelphia’s motion to dismiss some of the lawsuit brought against it this year by the United States. In July, Kenney blocked an ordinance that made it a crime for law enforcement officials – including federal officers – to wear face masks.
Philadelphia’s ICE Out legislation contained several measures, and the provision at issue in last week’s ruling said city officials can’t detain a person after he or she becomes eligible for release based on an immigration detainer, an administrative warrant or information that a person is in America illegally.
But it also says city employees and agencies are not prohibited from cooperating with federal authorities. The federal government’s lawsuit alleged Philadelphia’s law was preempted by federal statutes regarding “sanctuary” jurisdictions that bar measures that prevent local officials from communicating with immigration authorities.
That argument has been “repeatedly rejected by courts across the country,” Kenney wrote. In particular, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in 2021 denied Ocean County’s challenge to New Jersey-wide policies similar to Philadelphia’s.
“To be sure, it is foreseeable that § 21-3706(4) may make federal immigration enforcement less efficient because federal immigration officers may be required to track down noncitizens that have been released from state and local custody on their own,” Kenney wrote.
“But it does not follow that § 213706(4) poses an obstacle to the implementation of the provisions that the United States has identified here, or to immigration enforcement as a whole, based on ‘mere inconvenience.’”
The federal government’s argument that Philadelphia’s law is preempted by the statutory and regulatory provisions regarding the duties and obligations of federal immigration officers was also rejected. Kenney said the complaint “does not meaningfully engage” with any of those provisions or apply them to the Philadelphia law.
“Rather, the United States’ description of the overall federal immigration landscape and reliance on this batch of provisions is more appropriately characterized as a gesture toward ‘some brooding federal interest’ in immigration enforcement, which does not suffice for the purposes of conflict preemption,” he added.
Mayor Cherelle Parker signed six of the City Council’s seven ICE Out measures, declining to put her signature on the mask ban. Advocates this summer complained that her administration wasn’t enforcing the laws, with more than 60 groups sending Parker a letter urging full implementation.
In September, they said Parker agreed to some of their demands. Among the provisions in the legislative package were a ban on city employees granting ICE access to city-owned spaces like shelters without a warrant and a prohibition on city agencies collecting citizenship information or sharing personal data with ICE.