Lehigh County’s top official is drawing a line on immigration enforcement, and he is doing it with a policy that puts county workers squarely out of the federal fray. On Tuesday, County Executive Josh Siegel rolled out a proposed “non-cooperation agreement” that would bar county employees from helping Immigration and Customs Enforcement during enforcement operations. Siegel is pitching the move as a way to protect county workers from being pulled into deportation efforts they do not control, while still leaving the federal government free to operate on its own.
The county, he said, does not want to stop lawful federal actions, but it also does not want to serve as an active partner in operations local leaders view as unconstitutional.
What the policy would do
Under the proposal, county workers would be prohibited from offering “operational assistance” to ICE during enforcement actions, according to NBC10 Philadelphia. That means county employees could not be used as extra hands or logistical support during raids or related operations.
Siegel told reporters that “governments are not supposed to live in fear of the federal government” and stressed that the proposal “is not about defying or denying” ICE’s authority to operate in Lehigh County. Instead, he cast the measure as a shield for public employees, saying it is meant to keep them from being “forced or coerced” into helping federal agents carry out immigration enforcement.
Why now
Siegel is tying the timing to a recent surge in federal enforcement capacity. He pointed to new money from Washington after Congress approved roughly $70 billion in fresh funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol this month, a package that local officials say will expand deportation capacity. The legislation passed earlier in June, as described by Reuters.
With that kind of cash poised to ramp up enforcement, Siegel argues that local guardrails have become more urgent.
Backstory and local debate
The proposal is landing after months of simmering tension over how closely the county should work with federal immigration authorities.
Earlier this year, a dispute erupted over a county-owned office that a Homeland Security Investigations unit had been using. County officials said the agency owed more than $115,000 in unpaid rent, and some law-enforcement leaders warned that evicting the unit could hamper trafficking investigations, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Siegel had already signaled that he wanted to put limits on cooperation into law. He first floated the idea of codifying restrictions in his State of the County address in February, and county staff have discussed building a public database where videos of federal enforcement actions could be posted, Lehigh Daily reported.
Legal questions ahead
Lehigh County would not be the first local government to test how far it can go in limiting its role in immigration enforcement, and the legal landscape is anything but settled.
The Justice Department sued Washtenaw County in April over local policies federal officials said were obstructing immigration enforcement, according to ClickOnDetroit. In western Pennsylvania, Allegheny County has weighed a similar ban on cooperation with ICE, WESA reported.
Those fights illustrate the legal gray zone counties enter when they try to restrict voluntary help for federal immigration agents without clashing with federal law.
What’s next
Siegel plans to present the non-cooperation proposal to the Lehigh County Board of Commissioners, although a hearing or vote has not yet been scheduled. He has framed the measure as one piece of a broader agenda to safeguard civil liberties and keep county resources from being used in deportation efforts, according to NBC10 Philadelphia.
The coming debate at the county board will determine whether Lehigh becomes one of the latest test cases in the tug-of-war between local autonomy and federal immigration muscle.
