Delaware lawmakers move bills limiting cooperation with federal immigration agents to a floor vote

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Legislation that would limit federal immigration agents’ ability to operate in certain areas around Delaware is teed up for House votes after passing out of committee this week.

The two bills sponsored by state Rep. Sean Lynn, D-Dover, extend protections to undocumented people in Delaware who may be targets of enforcement actions in “sensitive” places.

According to the National Immigration Law Center, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, has had various policies since 2011, listing places where agents generally refrained from arresting people, such as schools, churches, hospitals and courthouses. However, President Donald Trump lifted that guidance in January when he returned to office for his second term.

“What we’ve learned is that states that do enact policies like this are safer and provide more safety for immigrant populations,” Lynn said.

• House Bill 93 would require the approval from the Delaware Attorney General’s Office before school resource officers and school constables could cooperate with federal officials in immigration matters.
• House Substitute for House Bill 94 would restrict Delaware police from cooperating with federal agents doing civil enforcement actions at places such as hospitals, child care centers, nursing homes and doctor offices. Lynn told committee members this week the House substitute would also include courthouses, but later told WHYY News it didn’t include courthouses because state Rep. Mara Gorman, D-Newark, addresses the issue in House Bill 150. That bill remains in committee.

Lynn said his measures only cover civil immigration infractions, not criminal violations. Being in the United States without the proper documentation is a civil law violation.

Immigration agents can serve immigration detainers, which are different than judicial warrants signed by a judge. That’s why ICE agents depend on the cooperation of local law enforcement to work with them to turn over people getting out of the criminal justice system into immigration custody.

The Camden Police Department in central Delaware backtracked earlier this year on a 287(g) agreement to cooperate with ICE and help enforce immigration laws after facing strong community backlash.

Marvin Mailey, executive director of the Delaware Association of Chiefs of Police, and Christine Kemp, president of the Delaware Fraternal Order of Police, said their organizations oppose these two bills and others sponsored by Lynn on immigration enforcement.

“We need to have the availability and the flexibility to be able to tend to emergent situations that could happen with our federal partners,” Kemp said. “I can tell you that there have been situations where the arrests that they were making in this community were done much safely by the information sharing and the assisting of our local partners.”

Lyle Dykstra, a retired pastor and community activist with the Poor People’s Campaign, said he supported the legislation.

“Church people are angry, upset because it is cruel and unkind, obviously not due process,” he said. “To willy-nilly pick up people because they’ve been profiled as appearing to be immigrants.”

Mat Marshall, spokesperson for Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings, said Jennings supports Lynn’s bills because they’re net positives on the issue. However, he said the state DOJ prefers House Bill 182 by Gorman, which prohibits law-enforcement agencies from entering into agreements with federal immigration authorities to enforce immigration violations or share related data.

“HB 182 is a stronger bill,” he said. “It covers a broader scope, enforcement plus information sharing, and it would make the policy mandatory and consistent rather than putting it at the discretion of the AG, whether AG Jennings or a future AG who may or may not be sympathetic with this position.”

Rep. Lynn has more pieces on immigration, which passed through the committee process earlier this year and are ready for a House vote.

• House Bill 95 would require the Delaware Department of Education, school districts and companies that store student data to obtain permission from the AG’s office before sharing that information with immigration enforcement agencies.
• House Bill 96 would require the state DOJ to submit a quarterly report to state officials detailing immigration-related requests from federal agencies.
• House Bill 58 bans a police officer from stopping or arresting an individual based solely on their actual or suspected immigration status, as well as bans an officer from asking about an individual’s immigration status.

Prosecutions by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Delaware of undocumented people are up 800% between Jan. 20 and May 13 compared with the same time period last year, according to a news release from Acting U.S. Attorney Shannon T. Hanson. Her office has filed 58 cases related to immigration and border security as of May 13 as part of President Donald Trump’s “Operation Take Back America,” a nationwide initiative that orders federal prosecutors to focus on immigration or border security cases.

This story was supported by a statehouse coverage grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.