ICE Out: Grand Opera from City Council

In its never-ending attempt to “make things better” by gumming them up, Philadelphia City Council has launched a virtue-signaling performance that parallels the intellectually bankrupt, and failed, “Defund the Police” movement.

What’s being contemplated is a bouquet of bills — ragweed, really — that either duplicate current city practice, or add overlays of truly questionable legality. 

It’s the “ICE Out” Playbook and it’s all for show, a Grand Opera that scratches a Leftist itch.

The  Inquirer condensed the bills: 

1- Prohibit data-sharing agreements between the city and ICE.

2- Codify sanctuary status into law by prohibiting the city from complying with a detainer request from ICE unless the agency has a warrant signed by a judge.

3- Ban all law enforcement officers, including Philadelphia police, from concealing their identities, except under specific circumstances outlined in the legislation, such as medical or tactical reasons.

4- Prohibit ICE from using city-owned property to set up staging and processing areas, and bar city employees from granting ICE access to nonpublic areas of city facilities.

5- Ban city officials and government contractors from conditioning city benefits on immigration status.

6- Create a new protected class, effectively banning discrimination based on immigration status.        

In my understanding of the city’s sanctuary status, numbers 1, 2, and 5 are already city policy, and 6 is probably covered by understanding of 5, dating back to sad sack Jim Kenney’s unlamented administration.

Number 3 is probably illegal and unenforceable. Imagine crazed D.A. Larry Krasner demanding that Philly cops arrrest masked ICE agents. Number 4 is deeply questionable, without the mayor’s approval.

During a Monday City Council hearing, Director of the Office of Immigrant Affairs Charlie Ellison said Mayor Cherelle Parker understands the intent of the legislation. “The city already has some longstanding protection in place for immigrants,” the Inquirer reported.

It also reported Ellison said some provisions of the legislation could be “legally problematic.”

It’s like I have a twin. 

Let me add that Council circulated an 8-page memo from lawyers on its technical staff that explains how everything is just peaches and cream. I obtained a copy. 

It should not come as a surprise to you that lawyers on your team can find legal justification for anything.

And Council’s lawyers have.

After the package is passed by Council, and that is expected on April 23, the mayor has three options.

She can veto it, which is unlikely. She doesn’t want to pick an unnecessary fight with Council. 

She can sign it, which could lead to an unnecessary fight with the federal government, which will go to court.

Or she can allow it to become law without her signature, which would be the smartest path.

Why?

Parker has been very cagey on the Sanctuary City issue, choosing to euphemistically call Philadelphia a “welcoming city.” 

Why that phrase?

It won’t enrage, she hopes, President Donald J. Trump, who has sent extra ICE and the national guard into other Sanctuary Cities, to nobody’s advantage.

Under her new curly wig, Parker is a moderate, pro-law and order Democrat, described as “Frank Rizzo in a dress,” by someone given to humor and exaggeration.

OK, that was me.

She would rather pass the cup on this issue.

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One question is why now for this totally unneeded legislation?

The answer is that ICE is unpopular across the nation and deeply unpopular in deep blue cities such as Philadelphia.

And the revulsion was caused by heavy-handed, and sometimes illegal, enforcement of immigration laws.

It lost the moral high ground and turned Americans against ICE. 

Border control/illegal immigration were among the top three issues that swept Trump into office.

Deportation was a majority plus from Trump — until it actually began. Americans are generally good people and they didn’t like what they saw, even though they voted for it.

Please disregard what revisionists will tell you — Trump said he was out to deport them all, starting with the worst of the worst.

ICE has failed on deporting only the worst of the worst — which was never a promise, only a starting point — and a lot of Americans have come to believe that illegal immigration isn’t even a crime. 

The Left brays “no one is above the law” when it comes to Trump, but believes that illegals are above the law.

What are Sanctuary Cities providing sanctuary from? Federal immigration law.

When Trump announced his massive deportation plan, I scoffed. It would not even be possible to deport an estimated 10 million illegals in a four-year term. 

There should be a better way, and I proposed one. So have others, but congress seems cast in cement, with each side finding some benefit in the stalemate.

Instead of its ridiculous virtue signaling, Council could have crafted proposals to solve the problem, rather than to interfere with law enforcement, which is what “ICE Out” does.