Delaware County Sanctuary City?

Delaware County Sanctuary City? — A listing of sanctuary cities, counties and states is being circulated by the influential Center for Immigration Studies and on it is Delaware County, Pa. We contacted CIS asking the reason for the inclusion of Delco but have yet to hear back.

Delaware County Sanctuary City?A “sanctuary city” or county or state is a jurisdiction that has declared that it will protect undocumented immigrants by not prosecuting them solely for violating federal immigration laws in the country in which they are now living illegally.

It rarely involves giving necessary sanctuary to true refugees. More often than not the motivation is cheap labor or the consolidation of political power through divisive identity politics.

Chester, Montgomery and Lehigh counties are also named as is, obviously, Philadelphia.

You can find the complete list here.

UPDATE — We heard back from Bryan Griffith of  Center for Immigration Studies who tell us the definition in the article is incorrect with regard to their map. They define “sanctuary city (county/state)” as a jurisdiction that does not comply with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainers for jailed or incarcerated illegal aliens. Griffith says Delco declined three detainers between January 2014 and September 2015 as per ICE.

UPDATE 2 — Bob Small has let us know that Swarthmore College President Valerie Smith has released a statement that the college is evaluating how to become a sanctuary campus after a petition signed by more than 1,100 students, faculty and alumni requesting such was presented to her. http://www.delcotimes.com/article/DC/20161116/NEWS/161119728#.WEBMF-4tJU8.email

Delaware County Sanctuary City?

 

14 thoughts on “Delaware County Sanctuary City?”

  1. You definition is incorrect (when using our map as a source). From the report:

    “The sanctuary jurisdictions are listed below. These cities, counties, and states have laws, ordinances, regulations, resolutions, policies, or other practices that obstruct immigration enforcement and shield criminals from ICE — either by refusing to or prohibiting agencies from complying with ICE detainers, imposing unreasonable conditions on detainer acceptance, denying ICE access to interview incarcerated aliens, or otherwise impeding communication or information exchanges between their personnel and federal immigration officers.”

    “A detainer is the primary tool used by ICE to gain custody of criminal aliens for deportation. It is a notice to another law enforcement agency that ICE intends to assume custody of an alien and includes information on the alien’s previous criminal history, immigration violations, and potential threat to public safety or security.”

    In short: A “sanctuary city”, by our definition, is a jurisdiction that does not comply with ICE detainers for jailed or incarcerated illegal aliens.

    As for Delaware County, PA: If you click on point the map, it tells you that the county declined three detainers between January 2014 and September 2015. This information comes from ICE.

    1. Mr. Griffith, you are wrong. Delaware County has not taken any action to become any sort of Sanctuary City. As for the “three detainers” you cite, you need to provide some facts. ICE does not know what your organization is talking about. Please retract your article as it pertains to Delaware County. John McBlain, Delaware County Council.

      1. All information on the Center for Immigration Studies’ map, with minor exceptions, is completed with data from ICE. Delaware County is not an exception. Please see the spreadsheet, obtained by Texas Tribune, below. Their article was linked to from our report.

        Article: https://www.texastribune.org/2016/01/15/34-texas-counties-declined-hold-deportable-immigra/
        Spreadsheet: http://graphics.texastribune.org/graphics/declined-detainers/assets/ICE-declined-detainers.xlsx

        The ICE data states that the County of Delaware, PA has denied three detainers. And beyond that, the “Jurisdiction has policy/legislation that limits or prohibits cooperation with ICE”.

  2. Is this something Paul Mullen or some of his followers would favor? Talk to Andy Reilly, he might go for it, if he thinks someone would give him a vote.

  3. Bill Lawrence, the information from he Center For Immigration Studies website is absolutely false. I have twice contacted the writer of the article with no response. Please be assured that Delaware County honors ICE detainers. When the Delaware County Prison receives an illegal immigrant, notification is provided. If the prison receives a hold request from ICE or any other federal or state agency, that request is honored. In fact, we have a very good relationship with ICE. ICE contracts with Delaware County for illegal immigrant detainees taken into custody at the Philadelphia International Airport. I would encourage you or anyone that has a question about Delco’s commitment to enforce federal immigration laws to contact ICE or any other federal law enforcement agency to confirm. We have no idea what this website is talking about on any failure to honor any detainer request. Our Council has not and will not approve any policy that would qualify our county as any sort of “sanctuary” status that would oppose the application of federal law. There’s no parsing words or being cute here – this website is flat out wrong, non-responsive when I have asked “what the hell are you talking about?”, and lacks any credibility. John McBlain, Delaware County Council.

  4. All information on the Center for Immigration Studies’ map, with minor exceptions, is completed with data from ICE. Delaware County is not an exception. Please see the spreadsheet, obtained by Texas Tribune, below. Their article was linked to from our report.

    Article: https://www.texastribune.org/2016/01/15/34-texas-counties-declined-hold-deportable-immigra/
    Spreadsheet: http://graphics.texastribune.org/graphics/declined-detainers/assets/ICE-declined-detainers.xlsx

    The data states that the County of Delaware, PA has denied three detainers. And beyond that, the “Jurisdiction has policy/legislation that limits or prohibits cooperation with ICE”.

    Beyond this, you’ll have to speak to ICE to discuss if their detainer data is correct.

  5. Hi Bill,

    This is not a comment on the above story. I read Leah Hoopes’ book ‘The Parallel Election’ and she one of the people she mentioned was Bill Lawrence and last week Dom Giordano mentioned your blog. Is this the Bill Lawrence I worked with for many years? Great to hear your trying to help get our country back on track, let’s pray for a big Red Wave this November.

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