NORRISTOWN, P.A. (KYW Newsradio) — Community leaders and allies of the immigrant community in Montgomery County gathered before a County Commissioners meeting on Thursday to call on the officials to end the county’s collaboration with ICE and pass a welcoming ordinance.
Jasmine Rivera, executive director of the Pennsylvania Immigration and Citizenship Coalition (PICC), said Montgomery County has responded to past “know your rights” requests with strong words on their letterhead, but it’s not enough.
“We are calling on commissioners to pass an ordinance because they are legislators. It is their job to legislate,” Rivera said. “We appreciate strong statements for immigrant rights, but statements are not enforceable.”
Rivera also cited a 2024 study from the ACLU of Pennsylvania and Villanova that found Montgomery County had the highest rate of collaboration with ICE among all counties in the state between 2016 and 2020.
“We know that there are more people who've been affected by this ICE collaboration since 2020 and we know that as of February of this year, there have already been two confirmed accounts of the county holding individuals on an ice detainer,” said Rivera. “In both circumstances, those people ended up in ICE custody.”
In the past, it’s been municipalities on the front lines of ICE collaboration — like Philadelphia, Allentown and Pittsburgh, which have all passed welcoming policies and ended collaboration — but Rivera said it’s now time for counties to do the same.
“We are calling on the Montgomery County Commissioners to ensure that county employees, county facilities, county databases are not collaborating with ICE,” she said. “We will talk to municipal leaders in separate conversations, but what we need is the county to stop their collaboration.”
In response, County Commissioners said they are looking to implement multiple policies as opposed to one comprehensive welcoming policy.