Nutter to Limit Police Cooperation With Immigration Officials

The Daily News reports that Mayor Nutter will sign an order tomorrow limiting the Philadelphia Police Department’s cooperation with federal immigration officials. Bottom line: It’s going to be a easier for undocumented immigrants to avoid deportation here.

The order is expected to preclude police from honoring detainer requests by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement except in cases where a person is convicted of a first- or second-degree felony involving violence, and only when ICE secures a warrant to support the detainer.

ICE detainers or “holds” are requests by federal immigration authorities for police to hold a person who was detained for an alleged crime for up to an additional 48 hours. That would allow ICE to take the person – if suspected of being an undocumented immigrant or a noncitizen – into their custody for possible deportation.

“Philadelphia is in the vanguard of showing how to start ending the deportations of our families and our community members, and is a great example at the national level and to showing President Obama what he can do to end deportations,” said Erika Almiron, executive director of Juntos, the South Philadelphia Latino-advocacy group. The city, as the nation’s fifth-largest, “can be the tipping point for the national dialogue.”

In February, Philly Mag interviewed pro-immigration activist Nicole Kligerman on why advocates wanted to end the city’s cooperation with ICE.