Greg Abbott has targeted Philadelphia because it is a sanctuary city, and so far, five unauthorized buses carrying more than 200 aliens from Texas have arrived.
What has surprised activists the most here? That he took so long to do it.
Philadelphia is more than just a sanctuary city, after all. It is one of the safest and most resilient cities.
President Donald Trump’s attempt to have local police enforce federal immigration laws was challenged and defeated in court by the Kenney administration, which also kicked ICE out of a database it thought the agency was using to track down illegal immigrants and forbade city workers from asking residents about their immigration status.
The extensive network of immigrant rights organizations in Philadelphia has not only endorsed but also demanded that stance, pushing for authoritative action even as they take on the challenging daily task of assisting newcomers. In Philadelphia, more undocumented families had sought refuge in sanctuary churches than in any other city in the nation at one point in 2019. Advocates helped these families hide from ICE to prevent their deportation.
“It is a clear and consistent message from the city of Philadelphia that immigrant communities are welcome here,” said Peter Pedemonti, co-director of New Sanctuary Movement of Philadelphia, which worked round-the-clock to help families in the church sanctuary. “The city has stood strong on this.”
In Philadelphia, a key component of being a “sanctuary city” is that local police officers do not assist ICE in rounding up, arresting, and deporting unlawful immigrants.
According to city officials, the federal government should handle that. And that if they fear deportation, crime victims and witnesses won’t come forward.
Now that Abbott has added Philadelphia to a list alongside three other cities as pick-up locations for his Texas busing operation, Philadelphia is facing additional pressure. In response to the state’s overburdened border communities, he has relocated over 13,300 immigrants from the U.S.-Mexico border to NY, Chicago, and also Washington, D.C., since April.
Immigration supporters call it a cheap political gimmick that only aims to hurt and cause trouble, but the effects are pretty noticeable.
To deal with the flood of thousands of people, New York City Mayor Eric Adams and Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser proclaimed states of emergency. With more buses from Del Rio, Texas, scheduled to arrive, Philadelphia’s mayor and immigration leaders are thinking about requesting state and federal assistance.
Most people arriving in Philadelphia by bus are looking for asylum, which is a legitimate way for someone to remain in the country if they are being persecuted back home.
Juan Giarrizzo, executive director of Gente de Venezuela in Philadelphia, emphasized the significance of people realizing that those coming here have undergone examination and screening by border authorities before being permitted to continue.
He battles to dispel the conservative myth that immigration leads to crime and harm rather than helping American society. Expanding businesses and employment in big cities like Philadelphia depend on immigration.
Many of those who came here did so to escape danger and pursue the opportunity. “If we had to uproot our lives and our families to create a better future,” said Laila Sadat, the city deputy communications director, “we would hope that others would treat us with dignity and respect.”
With the “six towns of refuge” mentioned in the Old Testament, the idea of sanctuary is as old as the Bible itself. Through Victor Hugo’s “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” in which Quasimodo saves Esmeralda from the gallows and carries her into safety inside the cathedral, it permeated ancient Greece and Rome.
Although many do not use the word, about 200 cities, counties, and states qualify as sanctuary jurisdictions today. For instance, Philadelphia formally refers to itself as a “Welcoming City,” where immigrants looking for a better life are welcomed equally by everyone else.
Republican critics claim that Democratic strongholds like sanctuary cities put law-abiding Americans in danger by refusing to work with federal authorities.
“Mayor Jim Kenney,” Abbott said in announcing Philadelphia as a destination last month, “has long celebrated and fought for sanctuary city status.”
He’s right in that regard.
In the first few hours of his administration in January 2016, Kenney reinstated a rule that prohibited practically all coordination between local law enforcement officials.
One year later, his administration sued then-President Trump over a case involving a small sum of money, but a significant legal question: could Trump withhold funding from the city if it did not require its police officers to assist ICE in apprehending illegal immigrants?
The city’s failure to comply with ICE detainer requests to hold individuals in custody until authorities can arrest them was a significant problem. According to Trump’s defenders, Philadelphia was releasing dangerous “criminal aliens” who ought to have been turned over to ICE officials.
Officials in Philadelphia claimed they only had the power to hold people in custody past the court-ordered release date and that they only honored detainers accompanied by signed judicial warrants.
U.S. District Judge Michael Baylson ruled in favor of Philadelphia in June 2018 after nearly a year of litigation and a four-day trial, stating that the city rules were fair, logical, and equitable.
The following month, Kenney declared he would not extend a contentious city contract that grants ICE officers access to the PARS computer system in response to loud demands from Juntos and other immigrant-rights organizations.
The real-time database recorded the nation of origin but did not collect information on immigration status. The Kenney administration said that ICE searched PARS daily to look for and look for persons who were not born in the country.
Action taken by the city signalled a turning moment for immigrant groups.
“Ending agreements with ICE, when I first started at Juntos, people thought it was impossible,” said Erika Almirón.
Since Philadelphia now welcomes bus riders due to those years of immigrant-led struggles to uphold the city’s sanctuary status, those struggles played a significant role in fostering bonds among group members of immigrant-aid organizations.
Even though they were competing for grants and funds, they got to know and trust one another, according to Lucy Rabbaa, director of social services at HIAS Pennsylvania.
Due to those connections, 20 people from various groups could convene in a hurry on Zoom as news of the arrival of the first bus from Texas on November 16 spread. They arranged to have volunteers there and give passengers supplies like blankets and hygiene kits.
“If we hadn’t done this work in the past, collaborating, organizing,” Rabbaa said, “we would probably not be able to pull this off quickly.”
