‘We want ICE out’: Pennsylvania Democrats look to combat Trump’s immigration policies

Democratic state legislators took to the steps of the state Capitol on Tuesday to condemn the Trump administration’s aggressive approach to immigration enforcement and introduce a slate of bills seeking to protect Pennsylvania communities from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. 

Describing the federal government’s immigration raids as a “campaign of mass detention, deportation and terror,” Democratic lawmakers used the gathering to expound on their efforts to protect immigrant communities and prevent federal overreach. 

“The last 15 months of Trump’s second term have presented challenges unlike any we have seen before across the country. Immigrant communities face escalating attacks, growing uncertainty, and persuasive fear. That’s why we are here today,” said state Sen. Nikil Saval. “We want ICE out of our workplaces, ICE out of our neighborhoods, and ICE out of Pennsylvania.”

According to the Trump administration, the federal government has deported more than 605,000 people during Trump’s second term as part of the president’s sweeping immigration crackdown. 

The Trump administration has also sought to expand immigrant detention across the nation, with approximately 66,000 people in detention at the end of 2025, according to the American Immigration Council. The Department of Homeland Security has also eyed several locations in Pennsylvania as potential immigrant detention facilities, though Gov. Josh Shapiro has vowed to use “every tool” in his power to oppose such facilities, noting that new detention centers would place a strain on local infrastructure, healthcare systems and emergency services. 

The separate killings of two U.S. citizens – Renee Good and Alex Pretti – in Minneapolis by ICE agents only served to further inflame tensions in the U.S. over the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement efforts. 

The bills introduced on Tuesday by Senate Democrats seek to limit ICE’s ability to carry out arrests and enforcement actions in a variety of spaces, while also creating a new avenue for Pennsylvanians to seek legal relief when they feel their rights have been violated by the federal government.

“We can determine the kind of commonwealth that we should be and that we will be,” Saval said, adding that the bills included in the “ICE OUT” package provide a range of protections to Pennsylvania communities. “It safeguards sensitive locations like schools and polling places, it strengthens accountability mechanisms and upholds our constitutional rights, and it creates pathways for people to seek justice when those rights are violated,” he added. “We must do all that is within our power to defend our dignity and keep each other safe.”

The bills in the package include: 

• Senate Bill 1071, which would establish criminal penalties for law enforcement officers who wear masks and facial coverings that obscure their identity while performing official duties
• Senate Bill 1125, which seeks to limit immigration enforcement in schools by requiring immigration enforcement officers and agents to present valid judicial warrants before gaining entry
• Senate Bill 1139, which would establish policies that aim to prevent state and local law enforcement resources from being used for immigration enforcement efforts
• Senate Bill 1193, which would prohibit federal immigration entities from conducting civil immigration arrests at state facilities without valid judicial warrants or orders
• Senate Bill 1336, which would establish a mechanism for Pennsylvanians to seek legal relief through state courts if federal government actions violate their constitutional rights
• Senate Bill 1357, which would prohibit on-duty federal law enforcement officers from being within 100 feet of a polling place or ballot dropbox on Election Day
• Senate Bill 24, which would create an Office of New Pennsylvanians within the Department of Community and Economic Development to attract and integrate immigrants into the state.

Saval was joined by a host of other state lawmakers, including state Sens. Carolyn Comitta, Tim Kearney and Lindsey Williams, as well as state Reps. Joe Hohenstein and Chris Rabb, the latter of whom is the Democratic nominee in the state’s 3rd Congressional District. 

Hohenstein, who previously worked as an immigration attorney for more than three decades, said on Tuesday that the immigration system he started working in looks drastically different today. 

“The immigration system that I began my work in is not what ICE is enforcing now,” he said. “ICE is enforcing a system of terror and fear that is designed to make people run away. It is designed to put people into the shadows, and that is not the American way.”

Hohenstein added that members of the state House of Representatives have sponsored a series of companion bills that mirror the Senate legislation outlined on Tuesday. 

In addition to state-level efforts to combat the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement efforts, Jasmine Rivera, the executive director of the Pennsylvania Immigration Coalition, said Congress should claw back the nearly $170 billion for the Department of Homeland Security that was approved in Trump’s signature One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

“We have Pennsylvanians who can’t afford education, can’t afford housing, can’t afford health care – but we’ve got $170 billion for immigration enforcement agents, for immigrant detention centers and for deportations,” Rivera said. “Is this what we want? … What we deserve is affordable education, healthcare and housing – and we deserve a commonwealth where everyone can feel safe and at home.”