Pottsville Says Hold the ICE, Vote on 287(g) Program Stalled

A vote on whether or not Pottsville Bureau of Police will participate in the ICE 287(g) program was put off at least until next month at a meeting Monday night at City Hall.

Council members were supposed to consider becoming the eighth local law enforcement agency in Schuylkill County to join the ICE 287(g) program under its Task Force Model. However, they voted instead to table a vote on it until at least their regular meeting in May.

Councilman Scott Price said he wanted to put off the vote until he got questions on “reimbursements and liabilities” with regard to the ICE program.

“I think it’s a very big decision for the city,” Price said, adding that he wants answers to his questions and to speak with current officers in the city.

Price and fellow councilpersons Andy Wollyung and Dottie Botto all agreed to table the vote on getting involved with ICE locally. Councilman Jonathan Marsh and Mayor Tom Smith voted against tabling the motion.

Marsh said that joining the program would give some control over immigration violations

Prior to Monday’s meeting, council members met in-person in executive session with an ICE represenative, Solicitor Gretchen Sterns tells Coal Region Canary.

Initially, Wollyung did not agree that tabling the vote on entering the ICE program was the right move. He signaled his opposition to the the City’s police department joining 287(g).

“I don’t think this should be here,” he said. “This is a federal issue. It should not become a local problem. We should not be utilizing our police in this manner.”

Under the 287(g) Task Force model, certain Pottsville officers that undergo ICE training would be given the ability to enforce limited immigration law enforcement. In the normal course of their work, police officers would be able to question and arrest individuals they believe are in the US illegally.

ICE does pitch financial incentives to municipalities like Pottsville to join its 287(g) program. However, despite promotional materials outlining some of those monetary benefits, there is nothing in the Memoradum of Agreement that the City would have to sign and other municipalities in Schuylkill County have signed that clearly guarantees that money would be available.

Sterns did say that the ICE representative who visited with council members prior to the start of Monday’s meeting verbally detailed the funding that Pottsville would get if it joined the Task Force model of the 287(g) program. Some of those financial benefits included getting $100,000 once a trained officer makes an immigration arrest and $7,500 per quarter per officer if they make such an arrest. The solicitor did acknowledge that those commitments were not in writing, however.

“I do not believe that we need to sell our morals for that cost,” Wollyung said of the promised financial benefits of joining.

Mayor Tom Smith definitely signaled that he’s in favor of signing on to the ICE program. He said ICE agents are already operating in Pottsville and that joining 287(g) simply provides the City’s force with the training to “better handle this situation.”

“I’m not thrilled about it myself but they’re already here,” Smith said.

He did also say that all the surrounding municipalties have already joined the program and voting against it would make Pottsville a sanctuary city. However, no municipal police force that surrounds the city has actually signed on. Police forces in Saint Clair, Port Carbon, and Minersville have not yet joined but a vote as early as Tuesday night in Minersville could change that, according to the Borough’s meeting agenda.

Botto said she’d be voting against joining. Marsh said if Pottsville joined the program, it would,/ affect Pottsville police operations.

Prio to Monday’s vote, several residents experssed their concerns over the 287(g) program operates.

Ronald Brown, a US military vet who served in Afghanistan, says he moved to Pottsville a few years ago from Chicago. He cautioned council members on the potential pitfalls of aligning the local police force with an agency that he feels does not have a stellar public reputation.

Brown says that training with ICE may change some local officers and their interactions with the public going forward.

“At the very least, you can just expect that the training and the situational awareness will change the way that they interact with any and all situations after this,” Brown said. “The mentality you have with the PD, just expect that to be altered after certain exercises and training.”

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