Credit: ICE
A series of billboards running in the Levittown area and elsewhere have drawn scrutiny.
Earlier this month and weeks away from the election, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) launched a series of wanted billboards. The billboards are running in several places in Philadelphia and Lower Bucks County, including along Route 1 in Middletown Township.
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Although billboards from federal law enforcement featuring wanted persons are not uncommon, former government officials have said the policy-related message is different.
ICE touted the campaign as designed to “educate the public about the dangers of non-cooperation policies,” or so-called “sanctuary cities.”
The black and red billboards show immigration violators who are at large and may pose a public safety threat, ICE said in a statement.
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The billboards feature the mugshot of the at-large persons and text that reads: “criminal alien sanctuary policies are a real danger.”
“These individuals were previously arrested or convicted of crimes in the U.S., but were released into the community instead of being transferred to ICE custody pursuant to an immigration detainer,” the federal agency said.
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When an undocumented immigrant wanted by ICE is charged or held by a local law enforcement agency, ICE often lodges a detainer or immigration hold asking the local agency to keep the person in custody for ICE or release the person to ICE when they are freed from local custody.
The American Civil Liberties Union warned that using ICE detainers to “imprison people without due process and, in many cases, without any charges pending or probable cause of any violation has raised serious constitutional concerns.”
Agencies that do not hold people on ICE detainers are often called “sanctuary” cities or jurisdictions, which itself is a vague term. The term generally means that local government bodies have policies or laws limiting cooperation with ICE or don’t hold lower-level offenders on detainers.
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“Too often sanctuary policies limiting cooperation with ICE result in significant public safety concerns,” said Tony Pham, the senior official performing the duties of the director of ICE. “ICE will continue to enforce immigration laws set forth by Congress through the efforts of the men and women of ICE to remove criminal aliens and making our communities safer.”
Over the past few years, President Donald Trump and his administration have used the sanctuary term to call out juridictions that don’t fully cooperate with ICE, even threatening to cut federal aid and grants.
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The billboards come at an important time leading up to the November election. The Trump campaign, which has long used immigration as a key issue, is focusing lots of resources in Pennsylvania, in their bid to win.
BuzzFeed News cited ICE employees who spoke anonymously as raising concern over the taxpayer-funded campaign and that it has political tones.
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“Decisions like these that are so large in scale, that reached the country in a very significant way, are not done in isolation. These have to be run through the secretary’s office up at headquarters and, ultimately, have to be cleared by the White House,” John Amaya, the former deputy chief of staff at ICE under the Obama administration, said to CBC radio. “There is no way the agency would have made this decision on its own.”
“The tactic is unusual, clearly political, and disappointing given the timing,” James Schwab, a former ICE spokesperson who resigned from his post, told BuzzFeed News.
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“The placement and the timing — the placement being Pennsylvania and the timing being a month before the election — make it clear that this is a political move, not related to operational matters,” David Lapan, a retired U.S. Marine colonel and former DHS press secretary during the Trump administration, said to CBS News. “We’re almost four years into the administration. Why wasn’t this done sooner if that was something they thought was important?”
ICE did not release the cost of the campaign or how long it would run.
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