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Upper Darby Township Council is advancing an ICE ordinance this week, and Councilman Kyle McIntyre came on to walk through what’s actually in it.
First reading is this Wednesday. The public hearing and final vote are Sept 16th.
Upper Darby passed an ICE resolution back in February, this is the ordinance.
McIntyre says he wrote about 80% of it in December, before he was even sworn in.
His framing on why this is a local issue and not a federal one: about 1/4 of Upper Darby is immigrant or foreign born and that’s over 20,000 residents. “Upper Darby is immigrants. I can’t separate those two.”
Hes clear ICE isn’t new here, but what changed is the scale and the shift away from judicial warrants toward civil detainers and people getting picked up off the street. There have been at least 300 residents lost this year, a majority of whom he says committed no crimes. And one Upper Darby resident died in ICE custody.
He also says Police Superintendent Bernhardt supported it and worked on it directly.
A provision nobody else has
Most ICE ordinances handle 287(g) agreements and stop there. McIntyre argues that leaves a gap, because your police department shares information with neighboring ones. If one of those neighbors signs a 287(g), they’ve got a back door into your systems and youd never know.
So Upper Darby’s ordinance triggers an auto review of every municipal agreement the township has with any agency that signs a 287(g). He says it’s a first of its kind provision and that even Philadelphia’s ordinance doesn’t have it.
He points directly at Lansdowne to explain the risk. Lansdowne just passed an ICE ordinance, but its constable reportedly holds a 287(g) agreement, and the constable isn’t a borough employee. Does UDPD’s police force have a voluntary agreement with that constable?
“Because our borders are swiss cheese, I have to be cognizant about this. Access to information in Upper Darby is a privilege that you must be aligned with our values to receive.”
He also brought up the fact that nothing hypothetically could have stopped Upper Darby from signing a 287(g) and becoming a staging ground for ICE operations targeting Philadelphia.
The masking workaround
A municipality can’t tell federal agents to take off their masks. So the ordinance requires Upper Darby police to remain identifiable while they are exercising police authority.
Which means masking becomes ICE’s giveawar. If someone’s covered up, you know they’re not UDPD.
He also frames this as a human trafficking and impersonation issue, because right now anybody can put on a vest and take someone off a street and nobody would know the difference.
He acknowledges this ordinance contains some of the first written provisions governing the police department’s operations, which he sees as a transparency win independent of the immigration piece.
What else is in it
Limits on collecting and sharing information. A ban on township property being used voluntarily as an ICE staging location, which he says is lifted from Philly’s ordinance. A training requirement, which he says was a deficiency in the city’s version. And a formal request that federal agents identify themselves and not mask while operating in the township. They can ask, but enforcing it is a different story.
Something else that is pretty big…Upper Darby police will track ICE activity and share it publicly. He says, right now when someone disappears, nobody knows if it’s a missing persons case or an ICE arrest, which wastes police resources and leaves families with nothing. He also wants residents calling 911 rather than confronting agents themselves.
Connection to November
He connects this to the November election, and expects ICE activity around polling places.
Most polling locations in Upper Darby are government or township property, which is exactly what the staging provision covers.
He’s also been talking with the school district, and says Clifton Heights would need its own ordinance for the protections to hold across the school district’s footprint.
And he makes an economic argument…when residents stop going outside, shopping, and eating out, and when families won’t visit relatives here because they’re afraid of getting picked up, that hurts the township’s economy too.
His hope is that this becomes a model ordinance. He says a lot of municipalities have been waiting to see what Upper Darby does, and expects Lansdowne to go back and amend theirs after seeing it.
The dates
First reading Wednesday, Sept 2nd. Public hearing and final vote Sept 16th.
Upper Darby’s International Festival is Sept 19th. The plan is to have the ordinance passed and bring it there.
