Residents expressed fears of forced detention, violence, racial profiling and missing relatives as they pressed the Lackawanna County commissioners on Wednesday to restrict federal immigration agents’ local behavior.
“No child should fear coming home to an empty house,” Scranton resident Jenny Gonzalez said. “No parent should live with the constant terror of being torn away from their children. These actions have shaken our local immigrant community to its core. As a U.S. citizen, I should not have to fear that my teenage daughter will be racially profiled or harassed by masked agents simply because she has a Spanish name or because she is a brown child.”
For the second commissioner's meeting in a row, immigration and federal enforcement of immigration laws took a prominent role.
Two weeks ago, Commissioner Bill Gaughan, at length, urged residents to rise up against what he views as out-of-control immigration agents who shot and killed two protesting activists in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Gaughan invited residents to attend the Wednesday meeting to support his plans for county-level restrictions on cooperating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
Gonzalez was among a chorus of speakers who heeded Gaughan’s call and watched as he introduced the Protect Our Neighbors Act, designed to restrict county government’s cooperation with ICE agents.
What Gaughan's proposal would do
Gaughan said the act “is not radical.”
“It is not lawless. It does not prevent federal immigration enforcement from doing its job. What it does is draw a clear line,” he said. “Federal civil immigration enforcement is the responsibility of the federal government, not the taxpayers of Lackawanna County.”
The act would prohibit:
- County agencies and employees from asking about someone's immigration status, unless required by law or court order.
“If you're applying for county services, if you're interacting with the county office, you should not have to fear that a routine encounter turns into an immigration inquiry,” Gaughan said. - Conditioning county services or benefits on immigration status, unless required by state or federal law.
“County government exists to serve the public, not to act as an arm of or for federal immigration screening,” he said. - County employees from detaining someone “based solely on an ICE detainer.” The act would require a valid arrest warrant signed by a judge.
- County participation in immigration enforcement operations.
“That means no assisting ICE with interviews, no providing nonpublic information for immigration raids, no turning over county facilities or databases for civil immigration enforcement purposes,” Gaughan said.
Gaughan said he developed the act in cooperation with the Community Justice Project and the Pennsylvania Immigration Coalition. He and fellow commissioners Thom Welby and Chris Chermak agreed to place the matter on their next work session agenda.
Lots of support for Gaughan's idea
More than a dozen county residents spoke in favor of the proposal or urged local action.
Citing the Minnesota deaths, Scranton resident Angela Ramon said local residents can’t stop the Trump administration’s enforcement tactics.
“However, we do have a role to play in keeping our neighbors safe from government overreach, especially from the federal government,” Ramon said.
The county can and should avoid renting property for immigration enforcement, refuse to hand over records without a valid judicial warrant or hire anyone who worked in immigration enforcement or contractors who cooperated with immigration enforcement, Ramon said.
“We can choose to be complicit ... or we could choose to take a stand and say, ‘No, we're not going to direct county resources to murder, brutalize and destroy our communities,’” Ramon said.
Will Cohen, a Scranton resident and university professor who grew up in Minneapolis, thanked Gaughan “for his straightforward, truthful and morally clear words about our immigrant and refugee neighbors.”
“People can have a variety of views about immigration, a range of understandings of what the best calibration is of how to enforce border policies,” Cohen said. “But what we've been seeing, particularly in Minneapolis, where I have a lot of friends and relatives, has been unconscionable. It's been over the top. It's a violation of human rights and human dignity.”
A U.S. tradition of bigotry
Rabbi Daniel Swartz, who leads Temple Hesed in Scranton, said the Bible mentions “welcoming the foreigner” 36 times and pointed out that President George Washington spoke out against bigotry against Jews.
“Every immigrant wave that came here ended up having members who denigrated the next wave that came just as the previous wave of immigrants had denigrated them,” Swartz said. “It’s a story that we have a choice about which direction we go, to be welcoming or to be bigots, to create a place that welcomes the contributions of all, or a place that, in its narrow-sightedness, excludes people who could bring great benefit to our area. I hope we'll choose well.”
The Rev. Christopher deForest, bishop of the Northeastern Pennsylvania Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, told the commissioners his church has immigrant roots dating back 300 years.
He pointed to local Indonesian immigrants’ plans to start a new Lutheran church, but said they fear the immigration crackdown.
“I think for us, the centerpiece, again, is we say very simply, how can we love like Jesus, heal like Jesus and engage like Jesus,” deForest said. “And so I endorse anything that you are planning on doing that focuses on love of neighbor, healing and engaging with all the community as we wrestle with these difficult times and frightening but important issues.”
Dunmore resident Breeda Cronin Holmes reminded that immigrants built Northeastern Pennsylvania.
“We just have to look in the mirror, because we all came from somewhere, particularly in Lackawanna County,” Cronin Holmes said.
Cathy Harrington, a nurse, said she treated citizens and undocumented immigrants at a local clinic. Immigrants work hard, sometimes foregoing necessary medical treatment, she said.
“These citizens, documented, undocumented, legal, illegally here, they're people,” Harrington said. “I believe we welcome people.”
'When laws are enshrined in hate'
Ushu Mukelo, president of the Congolese Community of Scranton and a refugee camp resident for years, spoke of balancing immigration law with compassion.
“I think these two things can go concurrently, because I think when laws are enshrined in hate, then those laws have to be looked at,” Mukelo said. “So I think when you listen to all this, it shouldn't be seen as noise, as people just coming to express frustrations. I do think commissioners, you do have the responsibility to make sure that every version of a Lackawanna resident feels safe and welcome.”
David James Baker, who called himself “a citizen of Scranton,” said he and his “immigrant person of color” wife have developed contingency plans in case immigration agents attempt to detain them. The brutality of ICE agents should remind everyone of the need to apply the law “equally ... across the board.”
“If you've ever asked yourself what you would have done in Italy in the 1920s or in Germany in the 1930s or at any moment in history when neighbors were being disappeared, journalists and academics were being arrested, and extrajudicial executions were carried out in the streets, this is your chance to find out,” he said.
Elizabeth Keiper-Aguirre, a Scranton resident, mother of four and small business owner who is married to an immigrant, said she felt compelled to speak up.
“I have to speak up for our children and the ongoing stress that this is causing to our families,” she said. “Toxic stress in the home greatly affects children, so it's not even in their understanding what's going on, but if their parents are exhibiting stress and they are feeling those residual effects, these are our community members.
She urged the commissioners to act.
“Our children deserve to feel safe.” Keiper-Aguirre said. “My employees deserve to know what to do. My families deserve to come to pick up their children and feel safe. They should be sending their children to school. We've had a decrease in attendance due to many reasons, but one of them, I know, is because of fear.”
The lone ICE supporter
Only one person spoke in support of ICE: businessman Bob Bolus of Scranton, a long-time Trump supporter.
“I've offered ICE an office in one of my buildings, because we need them here,” Bolus said. “If you're legal, you belong here. If you're illegal, get the hell out of our country. It's as simple as that.”
