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.
