LANCASTER, Pa.—The Lancaster city council recently ended police cooperation with federal immigration enforcement operations when it unanimously passed the Trust Act.
The act has been pitched as a path to safer communities by making illegal immigrants more comfortable speaking to police if they need to report a crime. Police and anyone employed by the city can’t ask about or respond to their immigration status.
The national immigration advocacy organization CASA has been advocating for the Trust Act in Lancaster for more than a year. Locally, CASA often intervenes in local politics. It was a force behind trying to keep ballot drop boxes in Lancaster in 2022.
Currently, CASA’s counterparts in Georgia are working toward driver permits for all, housing and tenant rights, and Medicaid expansion for immigrants, calling this a way to give “our immigrant neighbors the keys to unlock their full potential, allowing them to drive, work, and live with dignity.”
CASA did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
In Lancaster, the Trust Act means Lancaster police generally will not be allowed to engage with agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Department of Homeland Security, or the U.S. Department of Justice for matters involving illegal immigrants.
Elected city officials and workers cannot ask about an individual’s citizenship or immigration status unless required to do so by federal or state law according to the Trust Act. If they do learn of a person’s immigration status, they may not disclose it to others in the city, unless it is required by state or federal law, warrant, court order, or subpoena, or if it is reasonably necessary during a criminal investigation.
And then, the city may not retain information related to an individual’s citizenship or immigration status, the Trust Act ordinance reads.
Officials and employees are prevented from using city resources to provide any information to immigration enforcement officials unless the employee is expressly authorized to do so.
That means they cannot use a Lancaster city building, or any equipment, including cellphones, office supplies, radios, emails, databases, or employee time-on-duty to speak with immigration enforcement officials about an individual.
City and County
The city of Lancaster, population 57,500, is in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, population 554,000. The historic county, founded in 1729, was home to President James Buchanan and abolitionist Thaddeus Stevens, and during the American Revolution, Lancaster served for one day as the temporary capital of the United States.Today, many of the city’s old row houses are home to low-income and immigrant populations. Registered voters are mostly Democrats.
The city is surrounded by some of the nation’s most picturesque rolling farmland, where cars share the roads with Amish and Mennonite horses and buggies, and mostly conservative voters still maintain the county’s Republican majority.
Lancaster County is a popular tourist destination, especially for people seeking a respite from urban areas such as New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia, and Baltimore.
The Welcoming Standard
In 2019, Lancaster city joined Welcoming America, a nonprofit that encourages municipalities to “embrace immigrants and foster opportunity for all.”The Epoch Times asked Welcoming America to participate in this story.
Welcoming America has adopted a five-star rating system that measures the progress of local governments. The Trust Act ordinance in Lancaster aims for the city to have at least a three-star rating by 2025, and then it must be recertified as a welcoming city every three years.
The ordinance also requires the city to advocate for surrounding governments to adopt the Welcoming America plan and prepare an annual report on how it accomplished that.
The goal of membership is to meet the “Welcoming Standard,” which, according to the nonprofit’s website, is defined by seven elements of a truly welcoming place: civic engagement, connected communities, economic development, education, equitable access, government and community leadership, and safe communities.
Each element has a laundry list of criteria for cities to meet. For example, under civic engagement, cities must support eligible immigrants in voting; develop programs to help state and local election offices cure barriers to voting for eligible immigrants; and create programs that help immigrants in developing civic leadership skills accessible to speakers of languages other than English.
Cities should also create programs to help immigrants find work; start businesses; access education; get occupational certification; access money to grow their business; and help immigrant businesses obtain government contracts.
For equitable access, welcoming cities should assure that local government disseminates information on government services, resources, and public benefits with the goal of expanding access to immigrants; inform immigrants of workers’ rights; and address barriers to accessing rental housing and home ownership for immigrants.
Opposition
“The city will say that they’re not a sanctuary city,” Lancaster County Commissioner Ray D’Agostino told The Epoch Times, adding that the city will say instead that it is working on its welcoming city status.
“This is just going to exacerbate what we’ve seen elsewhere in the country,” Mr. D'Agostino said. “There are cities now going the opposite direction after having gone in this direction and seeing how it’s been a failure. It’s like our city is running into the fire after having seen other communities, what happened when they ran into the fire, how they got burned.”
The Epoch Times asked for a comment from Lancaster city.
Republican Dave McCormick is running for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Democrat Sen. Bob Casey.
“The Lancaster City Council’s decision to not cooperate with ICE—days after Laken Riley’s murder—is extremely reckless,” Mr. McCormick posted on social media.
Republican state Sens. Ryan Aument, Scott Martin, and Chris Gebhard issued a joint statement on the ordinance, urging the city council to rescind its decision.
“We know that weak border security creates an easy avenue for cartels to force more innocent people, including children, into human trafficking,” the statement said.
Welcoming Cities
As of 2024, there are 24 municipalities certified as Welcoming Cities through Welcoming America. They are:- Baltimore
- Boise, Idaho
- Champaign, Illinois
- Charlotte, North Carolina
- Dallas
- Dayton, Ohio
- Detroit
- Erie, Pennsylvania
- Lancaster, Pennsylvania
- Louisville, Kentucky
- Nashua, New Hampshire
- New Orleans
- Philadelphia
- Pittsburgh
- Portland, Maine
- Roanoke, Virginia
- San Jose, California
- Toledo, Ohio
- Tulsa, Oklahoma
- Cuyahoga County, Ohio
- Lucas County, Ohio
- Montgomery County, Maryland
- Salt Lake County, Utah
- San Mateo County, California
