Montgomery County says no to ICE agreements; advocates continue push for welcoming county policy

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Montgomery County Commissioners Neil Makhija and Jamila Winder announced in an op-ed in The Philadelphia Inquirer that they will not enter into any agreements with U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement under the federal agency’s 287(g) program.

The 287(g) program deputizes local law enforcement to serve and execute arrest warrants for immigration violations, among other provisions. These collaborations have more than doubled nationwide since President Donald Trump took office in January.

The two Democratic commissioners are notably distancing themselves from neighboring Bucks County, where Sheriff Fred Harran signed a collaboration agreement with ICE that would allow deputies to work with ICE officials through the “task force model” of the federal agency’s 287(g) program.

The agreement, which is not yet finalized, has been met with both pushback and support from Bucks residents in a county which went to Trump in the 2024 election by a razor-thin margin of just under 300 votes.

“We’re at a moment nationally where it is very clear the federal government is engaging in intimidation,” Makhija told WHYY News, citing the arrest and criminal indictment of a federal judge in Wisconsin accused of helping an immigrant evade ICE agents.

“There are a number of local officials who are just afraid to speak up, and they don’t know their own rights. And what I think is very important is that local officials understand that it is our right and responsibility to do what’s best for our residents,” he said. “We don’t have to implement a misguided federal policy that we know is going to harm people in a number of ways, and that has been clearly recognized in Supreme Court precedent by conservative judges like Justice Scalia and Justice O’Connor.”

Makhija said 287(g) agreements pose a threat to public safety and the economy, and are fiscally irresponsible.

“When you look at the cost of mass deportation, aside from breaking up millions of families and people who are in mixed-status families, including citizens, you’re essentially driving people underground so they’re afraid to access emergency services or report crimes or serve as a witness to crimes,” he said. “You’re also taking people out of our communities that are serving in critical functions, and our economy could not operate without them.”

According to Makhija, the money used to fund mass deportation could instead provide universal pre-K and child care for all, and fund five mental health counselors in every public school in the country.

“I think those are the kind of expenditures that people actually want to see,” he said.

‘We need something written’

Denisse Agurto, executive director of Unides Para Servir, an immigrant-serving organization in Norristown, applauded the commissioners for not entering into the 287(g) program, but said more can be done.

Over the past several months, residents and community members have repeatedly pushed for   a welcoming county ordinance to codify policies related to noncollaboration with ICE.

Agurto said a particular point of concern is how and when people are detained on behalf of ICE at the Montgomery County Correctional Facility.

According to a document obtained by WHYY News, as of December 2024, the Montgomery County Correctional Facility does not accept people brought into the facility solely on an ICE or Department of Homeland Security detainer without a judicial warrant. However, the facility does hold people who are wanted by ICE, on an ICE detainer, for up to four hours, even after they have posted bail for any county criminal charges.

“We need that [to] stop for real,” Agurto said. “We need something written, saying this need[s] to stop.”

A report by the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania and the Farmworker Legal Aid Clinic at Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law found that Montgomery County Correctional Facility had the highest rate of collaboration with ICE of any county law enforcement in the commonwealth.

Makhija said this board of commissioners marks a departure.

“In the past, our correctional facility was used as a detention center for ICE,” Makhija told WHYY News. “We are not interested in doing that. We are not going to serve as a detention facility.”

Makhija said his position is that the facility should only detain people who have a judicial warrant for arrest.

“We are going to ask for a judicial warrant, and if a judge has signed off, then we’re going to follow that as law, but that is what we’ve announced as our policy,” he said.

However, Makhija was unable to confirm exactly if and how that policy would be implemented at the facility.

In a letter supporting a welcoming county policy addressed to county commissioners, advocacy group Pennsylvania Immigration Coalition said that “in 2025, there have already been two confirmed accounts of the county holding individuals for ICE on an ICE detainer.”

Makhija pointed to “hundreds of things” the county can do to support immigrant residents on a daily basis, but did not commit to a welcoming ordinance.

In addition to hiring Nelly Jiménez-Arévalo as the county’s first-ever director of immigrant affairs in February, Montgomery County commissioners launched an online immigrant resource center at the beginning of this month. The web page features links to multilingual information about county departments and trusted organizations providing legal, social and business services for immigrant residents.

“We’re only a month into having our director of immigrant affairs, and we’re going to continually look at all of our policies to make sure that we’re supporting our immigrant communities,” he said. “I think we’ve largely done many of the things that we’ve seen people advocate for in terms of supporting our immigrant communities, and we’re going to continue to do that and by having the Office of Immigrant Affairs … we’re always going to be looking to make sure that our policies across the board are welcoming.”