Pennsylvania’s 9th District House Race Winner

Small-town police departments in Pennsylvania's Schuylkill County have become major participants in federal immigration enforcement through ICE's 287(g) program, which pays local agencies to help arrest and detain immigrants. Fourteen departments in the county have collected more than $1.5 million in federal funds and assisted in over 100 arrests, helping push Pennsylvania to fourth among states nationally with more than 1,200 such arrests this year. Critics note that more than two-thirds of those arrested through the state's participating agencies had no criminal record, and some cases have involved U.S. citizens mistakenly swept up.

The trend contrasts with neighboring New York and Maryland, which have barred local police from partnering with ICE. Pennsylvania Democrats have proposed similar restrictions, but the Republican-controlled state Senate makes passage unlikely. Gov. Josh Shapiro's administration says it limits state police cooperation with ICE, though it has left local police and sheriff policies to individual agencies. Shapiro previously blocked plans to expand federal detention capacity in the region by denying utility access to proposed facilities.

In Pennsylvania's 46th Senate District, a coal- and gas-reliant region, independent candidate Jodi Borello is challenging Republican incumbent Camera Bartolotta after the Democratic nominee withdrew, leaving Borello as the sole challenger. Borello, a former organizer for the Center for Coalfield Justice who campaigned against fracking, now runs as a "Trump-voting" small-business owner opposed to corporations and data centers, without emphasizing her anti-fossil-fuel record. Her former employer's political arm, Coalfield Justice Action, has spent at least $10,500 on ads against Bartolotta and was pitched to national climate donors as a $300,050 "Investing in Elections for Climate" project. No coordination with Borello's campaign has been proven, but the funding sources behind the messaging remain largely undisclosed ahead of the November 3 election.