The Philadelphia City Council on Monday advanced a seven-bill legislative package that would ban ICE agents from wearing masks, using unmarked vehicles, or operating on city-owned property, moving the city closer to enacting some of the country’s toughest local restrictions on federal immigration enforcement.
The “ICE Out” package cleared the Committee of the Whole by unanimous voice vote after a six-hour hearing, during which dozens of activists packed the chambers at City Hall, while not a single person testified in opposition. Mayor Cherelle Parker’s administration flagged legal concerns with six of the seven bills but stopped short of opposing the measures, signaling it would not block them. The bills now head to the full Council floor, where a final vote is expected on April 23.
The package was co-authored by Councilmember Kendra Brooks of the Working Families Party and Councilmember Rue Landau, a Democrat, and each bill carries at least 13 co-sponsors beyond its two authors. That gives every measure veto-proof support in the 17-member chamber. Five members were absent for Monday’s votes: Mike Driscoll, Mark Squilla, Katherine Gilmore Richardson, Curtis Jones Jr., and Brian O’Neill, Council’s lone Republican. Only Driscoll and O’Neill have not co-sponsored the package, and Brooks told reporters she has collected signatures from more than 2,000 residents who support the legislation.
Parker, a centrist Democrat who took office in 2024, has carefully avoided directly criticizing the Trump administration and has rarely discussed immigration publicly. When asked in January whether she was choosing not to pick a fight with the federal government, she said reporters could look at it that way. Supporters have credited that approach with keeping Philadelphia from experiencing the surges of federal agents seen in cities like Minneapolis and Los Angeles. She has not said whether she would sign the bills, veto them, or let them become law without her signature, and she has never vetoed a bill during her time in office.
In what appeared to be an effort to preempt Monday’s hearing, Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel sent a memo to all officers on April 2 formalizing a policy that explicitly prohibits officers from assisting ICE with noncriminal immigration enforcement. The directive states that Philadelphia police may not serve immigration warrants, transport individuals for immigration enforcement purposes, or share nonpublic information to aid immigration operations. Deputy Commissioner Francis Healy, who testified at Monday’s hearing, described the memo as a “quasi-directive” that police leadership can update as needed. He said it was finalized the previous week after extensive internal discussions within the department.
Monday’s hearing before the Committee of the Whole lasted six hours, with Council members receiving testimony from administration officials, legal experts, and immigration advocates. Fourteen-year-old Merelyn Mejia-Shephard, whose parents are both immigrants, delivered emotional testimony telling lawmakers the possibility of losing her family to deportation is the scariest thing she faces. She said the safety and stability of her family and many others depends on the package passing, and pleaded with Council to act on behalf of the children of immigrants who have everything to lose. Her words landed in a chamber already charged with energy, where residents and advocates had gathered hours before proceedings began.
Landau told the packed room that Philadelphia will not be complicit with policies that undermine the safety and dignity of its neighbors, will not use its resources to destabilize communities, and will not turn its back on the very people who make the city what it is. Her remarks drew applause and cheers from the crowd. She later told reporters that being a welcoming city cannot just be branding or something put on a website or said at a press conference, and that if policies look good on paper but fail in practice, the city is offering a promise it is not prepared to keep. She said it has to show up in how every agency operates every single day.
Brooks pushed back forcefully against the idea that staying quiet would keep the city in the good graces of the Trump administration. “I reject the notion that if we somehow stay silent, we will remain in the good graces of the Trump administration,” she said during the hearing. “Furthermore, if we are more worried about poking the bear than protecting our own, we are letting our city be bullied, and that’s unacceptable in the city as gritty as ours.” When reporters asked afterward whether the legislation might put the city in Trump’s crosshairs, she said the president is unpredictable but that the most important thing was getting the measures on the books so the city is prepared, describing the effort as about readiness and not a threat.
Charlie Ellison, director of the Office of Immigrant Affairs, testified that the administration “wholeheartedly” supports the bill barring discrimination based on immigration status. He said the administration understands and appreciates the intent behind the legislation and that Parker has taken and plans to continue taking executive actions that go along with the bills. He added that Parker plans to release a memo explaining how the city’s existing immigration policies work together, and that the law department is working with procurement officials to add language to city contracts that more explicitly protects the immigration status of individuals. He also said the mayor intends to pursue additional proactive steps to further the goals of some of the measures.
Ellison outlined existing protections Parker has maintained, including an executive order signed by predecessor Jim Kenney in 2016 barring compliance with ICE detainer requests without a judicial warrant, and a 2009 order from former Mayor Michael Nutter providing all city services to every resident regardless of immigration status. He then warned that six of the seven bills contain what he called legally problematic language, with specifics detailed in a confidential and privileged analysis prepared by the city’s law department. He pointed out that the anti-masking bill applies to officers at every level of government and that similar bills are in litigation in other states. He also flagged the bill restricting ICE from city-owned property, saying the legislation includes spaces outside the city’s direct jurisdiction, such as schools and courts, and said the administration is instead considering the feasibility of posting signs at facilities the city controls.
City Solicitor Renee Garcia testified that some of the amendments the Council introduced on Friday address a number of those legal concerns, and said her office would provide a formal legal opinion on enforcement if the measures pass. Council attorneys pushed back in a memo obtained by The Inquirer, arguing there is a sound legal foundation for every piece of the package. They mounted a detailed defense of the masking ban, writing that the federal government cannot credibly argue that wearing masks and concealing identification is necessary for its operations because the practice is new. The memo also countered the suggestion that Council may lack the authority to direct city employees’ behavior regarding ICE, pointing to similar policies codified by states and cities across the country.
Vanessa Stine, a senior staff attorney for the ACLU of Pennsylvania, reinforced that argument by invoking the anti-commandeering doctrine, a legal principle rooted in the Tenth Amendment’s guarantee of states’ rights. She told the committee that the federal government may not compel states to implement federal programs through legislation or executive action, and that the city can choose to minimize its entanglement with what she described as abusive and discriminatory federal immigration enforcement programs. The city operates under a “strong mayor” system, meaning lawmakers set funding levels and policy, but the mayor oversees implementation and operations. No legal expert who appeared on Monday raised doubts about the package’s viability.
At the center of the package is a bill that would prohibit all law enforcement officers at the local, state, and federal levels from concealing their identities by wearing masks or refusing to display their badges. District Attorney Larry Krasner would have the authority to prosecute agents who violate the ban, and any resident could file a civil lawsuit against them. Driving an unmarked vehicle during enforcement activity could also lead to prosecution, though the bill carves out exceptions for undercover assignments, SWAT operations, and medical purposes. Krasner has frequently said he is willing to prosecute ICE agents who break local laws, although he has never done so.
Another measure would codify the city’s longstanding sanctuary policies into law, formally prohibiting police and jail officials from honoring ICE detainer requests unless the agency presents a warrant signed by a judge. A separate bill would bar city agencies, including the police department, from entering into collaboration agreements with ICE under its 287(g) program, sharing data with federal immigration authorities, or collecting information about residents’ citizenship or immigration status. City-owned properties such as libraries, recreation centers, health clinics, and shelters would be declared off-limits to ICE operations absent a judicial warrant, and agents would be barred from setting up staging or processing areas on city land or conducting raids on city-owned properties. A provision updating the city’s Fair Practices Ordinance would create a new protected class based on immigration or citizenship status, prohibiting discrimination on those grounds by city agencies, employers, housing providers, or businesses.
An amendment introduced Monday clarified that individual city employees would not face personal civil liability for failing to comply with the new laws, but anyone who believes they were affected by a violation could bring a lawsuit against the city and the specific agency involved. If all the bills become law, Philadelphia, home to an estimated 76,000 undocumented immigrants, would have some of the most stringent local restrictions on federal immigration operations in the country. Should the package pass on April 23, Parker would have 10 days to act, and the bills would take effect 60 days after becoming law. Landau told reporters after the hearing that the administration is starting to implement the blueprint the Council put on the table and is beginning to develop policies, procedures, and training for staff, and that she intends to make sure the bills don’t sit on a shelf once passed.
Healy testified that the only circumstance in which officers would participate in an ICE operation is if an agent faces an emergency, such as being assaulted. He said there is no collaboration on civil enforcement between the police department and ICE, and that officers who find themselves positioned between ICE agents and protesters are not there to take a side. He said the department only gets involved if there is actual physical violence or someone is in imminent harm. Under questioning from Landau, he confirmed that officers would intervene if an ICE agent uses force in a way that creates a public safety risk, saying the department has a duty to protect all people.
“If someone is going clearly above and beyond the line, we have a duty to protect all people,” Healy said. Landau told him she had never heard that commitment stated so clearly in her previous meetings with the department, and said she and everyone in the chamber appreciated that the police are now saying publicly they will intervene. The exchange drew attention to the gap between longstanding informal understandings and the explicit written policy the department formalized through the April 2 memo.
In Delaware, state Representative Mara Gorman, a Democrat from Newark, is pushing two immigration-related bills through the legislature. The first, which passed the state House 25-13 before lawmakers recessed for Easter break, would ban civil arrests in courthouses and Delaware Department of Labor offices where workers’ compensation hearings take place. The bill defines a civil arrest as the arrest or detention of someone unrelated to criminal law enforcement or without a judicial warrant authorizing the taking of someone into custody. Gorman said she is unaware of any ICE arrests at Delaware courthouses but wants to prevent them.
“What we have seen across this country is people being picked up by ICE agents outside courthouses, sometimes while they’re on their way in to testify as a witness, sometimes while they’re there for a custody hearing or to file for a protective order against an abusive partner,” Gorman said. “When that happens, it doesn’t just affect the person who gets arrested. It sends a message to everyone in the community they come from, don’t come to court, don’t show up as a witness, don’t pursue the protection the law offers you. That is a threat to justice itself.” The bill now heads to the state Senate.
For decades, the Department of Homeland Security maintained guidance prohibiting immigration enforcement in sensitive locations such as schools, churches, and hospitals. President Biden expanded that policy, restricting ICE and Customs and Border Protection activities in or near courthouses. Trump rescinded the guidance upon retaking office in January 2025. A WHYY News analysis of government data processed by the Deportation Data Project, a team of academics and lawyers focused on transparency in immigration enforcement, found that about 689 people in Delaware were arrested by ICE officers in 2025, compared with 220 in 2024, with most being street arrests and a minority from state correctional facilities or probation offices.
Gorman’s second bill targets private detention facilities. Federal courts struck down laws in New Jersey and California that attempted to ban private immigration detention centers outright, and DHS had been working to convert warehouses in multiple states into holding facilities. Congressional Republicans allocated $45 billion for ICE to expand its detention system through the legislation commonly known as the “one big beautiful bill” passed last summer, though a recent push to purchase warehouses has reportedly been paused after facing backlash from local communities. According to deed records, ICE bought a Pennsylvania warehouse in Berks County for $87 million in February 2025 and operates six ICE prison centers in New Jersey, including one opened this past May.
Gorman originally introduced a bill last year that would have prohibited any person from operating a private detention facility within Delaware, but she pivoted after the court rulings. Her revised approach, modeled on an Illinois law, bars the state and its subdivisions from entering into contracts, providing funding, or supplying resources that support private detention facilities. Katherine Bowman, Gorman’s legislative aide, said in an emailed statement that the change does not achieve the original goal of preventing federal private detention in the state, but that the bill still serves an important function by removing the state as a participant, sending a clear signal to private developers and leveraging the kind of public opposition that has proven to be one of the most effective tools communities have used to deter these facilities. Gorman said she plans to introduce another draft to clarify the bill’s summary, striking a line from the synopsis she called confusing, while keeping the body of the bill the same.
These new measures would add to the four immigration-related laws Governor Matt Meyer signed last July. House Bill 182 prohibits law enforcement agencies from entering into 287(g) agreements with ICE to enforce immigration violations or share related data, drafted after community backlash forced the Camden Police Department in central Delaware to rescind its cooperation agreement earlier that year. House Bill 152 makes it a crime to impersonate a federal agent, introduced after Attorney General Kathy Jennings said state law enforcement was still investigating an armed robbery in Milford where two masked men wearing vests with ICE labels and driving a vehicle with flashing lights pulled over a car, stole the victim’s money, and punched him in the face before driving away. House Bill 153 prohibits citizens’ arrests, and House Bill 142 removes the ability of a private individual to arrest a person accused of a felony in another state without a warrant.
Delaware state lawmakers returned to session Tuesday.
