U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey came to Pittsburgh on Monday to blast the sanctuary city movement, arguing at a news conference Downtown that his position is not about immigration but about criminal behavior.
Sanctuary cities have formed in recent years to protect immigrants from local law enforcement profiling, said Peter Pedemonti, executive director of New Sanctuary City Philadelphia. In an effort to be welcoming to all immigrants and help them thrive, sanctuary cities do not collaborate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he said.
“If someone commits a crime or is a terrorist threat, the police can arrest that person and he will go through the criminal justice system,” he said. “The city of Philadelphia automatically shares crime information with the FBI and Department of Homeland Security. Our data systems are set up to do that.”
Pennsylvania has roughly 25 sanctuary cities. Pittsburgh is not one of them.
Mr. Toomey said sanctuary cities protect violent criminals and are even required to release them. His detractors say that his seat in the U.S. Senate is vulnerable and that he is fear-mongering to portray Katie McGinty, his Democratic opponent, as lenient toward violent, undocumented people.
Ms. McGinty’s communications director, Sabrina Singh, released a statement that blamed Mr. Toomey for being part of the problem for not having supported immigration reform that had bipartisan support in 2013.
The mayors of Philadelphia, York, State College, Lancaster, West Chester, Downingtown, Yeadon and Easton signed a recent letter to Mr. Toomey on the topic that reads, in part, “Enough with the inflammatory and misleading rhetoric.”
The letter criticized him for voting against the 2013 legislation to reform the immigration system, which, it stated, would have made the sanctuary city movement unnecessary.
Mr. Toomey said the legislation was flawed and did not deal with dangerous immigrants.
Diana Nelson Jones: djones@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1626.
First Published: May 17, 2016, 4:00 a.m.