Politics
Philadelphia mayor’s office disavows officials’ ICE remarks as House GOP scrutinizes city policy
Mayor Cherelle Parker’s administration told a House committee that it does not endorse immigration-enforcement statements by District Attorney Larry Krasner and Sheriff Rochelle Bilal. The committee’s report says Philadelphia declined 162 ICE detainer requests from January 2024 through June 2026, while city policy generally requires a judge-signed warrant before officials hold someone for immigration agents.
Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker’s administration told a congressional committee that it does not endorse statements by District Attorney Larry Krasner and Sheriff Rochelle Bilal about federal immigration enforcement, according to an interim report released Thursday by the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee.
The report quotes a May letter from then-City Solicitor Renee Garcia saying the district attorney and sheriff are separately elected officials and that their statements are “wholly separate” from the mayor’s administration. The letter reflects Parker’s effort to distinguish her administration from the more confrontational public positions taken by Krasner and Bilal as Congress scrutinizes the city’s immigration policies.
The committee said Philadelphia did not honor 162 Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainer requests between January 2024, when Parker took office, and June 2026. It said the city received seven judicial warrants during that period, which were honored or involved people transferred to state prison after conviction.
An ICE detainer asks local authorities to keep someone in custody so federal immigration agents can take custody of them. Philadelphia’s longstanding policy is generally not to hold people on detainers without a warrant signed by a judge. City officials have previously said that not honoring a detainer does not necessarily mean a person is released into the community; some remain in city custody or are transferred elsewhere.
The committee portrayed the city’s approach as obstructive and criticized the sheriff’s office for how it handles ICE arrests at the municipal courthouse, as well as the district attorney’s office for considering immigration consequences when resolving cases. Those are the committee’s assessments; its report also says some people with detainers who had previously faced criminal charges were later arrested by ICE.
Krasner said he has spoken out against the Trump administration’s deportation campaign because, in his view, “these are authoritarian times.” He also said his office gave the committee records showing prosecutors asked ICE not to deport people facing violent-crime charges so they could be prosecuted locally, and that ICE did not honor those requests. He called the committee’s report a “cover-up document.”
Bilal drew national attention in January with remarks calling ICE “fake, wannabe law enforcement” and threatening to arrest agents. Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel responded at the time that city police handle municipal policing and criminal investigations, not the sheriff’s office. A spokesperson for Bilal did not respond to a request for comment on the committee report, and the city Law Department declined to comment.
Parker signed legislation earlier this year that codified restrictions on local cooperation with ICE, while generally taking a quieter public approach to the federal deportation campaign. The House committee began seeking records from city agencies in May as part of its investigation into Philadelphia and other jurisdictions it accuses of limiting cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.