Midstate counties, communities among ‘sanctuary jurisdictions,' says DHS

Yahoo

6 days ago

(WHTM/AP) — Several Pennsylvania counties and communities are among those the Department of Homeland Security labeled as 'sanctuary jurisdictions' in a list published Thursday.
'These sanctuary city politicians are endangering Americans and our law enforcement in order to protect violent criminal illegal aliens,' DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said in a press release.
Locally, Adams and Dauphin counties as well as Gettysburg borough and York city are listed.
Statewide, counties included range from urban centers like Lehigh and Allegheny to rural areas like Clarion and Montour.
Each municipality on the list, DHS says, will receive formal notification that they are believed to be noncompliant.
The list was compiled using a number of factors, including whether the cities or localities identified themselves as sanctuary jurisdictions, how much they complied already with federal officials enforcing immigration laws, if they had restrictions on sharing information with immigration enforcement or had any legal protections for people in the country illegally, according to the department.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order on April 28 requiring the secretary of Homeland Security and the attorney general to publish a list of states and local jurisdictions that they considered to be obstructing federal immigration laws.
Download the abc27 News+ app on your Roku, Amazon Fire TV Stick, and Apple TV devices
There's no specific or legal definition of what constitutes a 'sanctuary jurisdiction.' The term is often used to refer to law enforcement agencies, states or communities that don't cooperate with immigration enforcement.
Pennsylvania municipalities included in the list include:
Adams County;
Allegheny County;
Centre County;
Chester County;
Clarion County;
Dauphin County;
Delaware County;
Lehigh County;
Montgomery County;
Montour County;
Northampton County;
Gettysburg borough;
Philadelphia city;
Pittsburgh city;
State College borough;
York city.
Communities that don't cooperate with ICE often say they do so because immigrants then feel safer coming forward if they're a witness to or victim of a crime. And they argue that immigration enforcement is a federal task, and they need to focus their limited dollars on fighting crime.
'Sanctuary policies are legal and make us all safer,' said a coalition of local officials from across the country and a nonprofit called Public Rights Project in a statement Thursday. They said the list was a fear tactic designed to bully local governments into cooperating with ICE.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.