A day after the Trump administration released a list of more than 500 “sanctuary jurisdictions” that it considers to be obstructing federal immigration enforcement — including Lehigh and Northampton counties — СŷƵ officials are hitting back at the designation.
The Department of Homeland Security on Thursday published a ” which includes states, counties and cities. In Pennsylvania, 16 jurisdictions landed on the list.
Lehigh and Northampton County’s executives immediately disputed the counties’ placement on the list, insisting they follow federal law.
Northampton County Executive Lamont G. McClure said Friday that the county’s inclusion on “is a blatant distortion of fact and a transparent act of partisan grandstanding. It is a smear rooted not in law or logic, but in naked MAGA politics.
“Northampton County will continue to uphold our responsibilities under the law, honoring our Constitution, protecting our community, and rejecting attempts to politicize public safety,” McClure said.
Northampton County has been locked in a dispute with ICE officials, who have been critical of the county’s policy of not allowing federal agents to enter county property to make an arrest without a legal warrant or a judge’s order.
McClure has defended the policy, and said it balances immigration enforcement with an individual’s right to due process. The policy came about after an ICE agent in 2020 detained an immigrant without a warrant at Northampton County Courthouse.
That policy has also drawn fire from Republican СŷƵ U.S. Rep. Ryan Mackenzie. McClure is seeking the Democratic nomination to challenge Mackenzie in the 2026 midterm elections.
Trump administration targets ‘sanctuary jurisdictions,’ puts Lehigh and Northampton counties on list
ICE in February criticized Northampton County for not allowing agents access to the county jail to arrest a Venezuelan national who authorities said is a suspected member of criminal gang Tren de Aragua. Instead, the man was arrested outside the jail, which ICE said could pose a danger to the public.
Mackenzie took to the U.S. House floor to criticize Northampton County’s policy, calling on McClure to rescind it.
County officials have said that despite the policy, they have notified ICE in advance when an inmate would be released so federal agents could take that person into custody.
Northampton County Controller Tara Zrinski, the Democratic nominee for Northampton County executive, said Friday that threatening to withhold federal funding from the county “does nothing to make us safer. Instead, it undermines local control and distracts from real solutions on immigration and public safety.
“I stand firmly against these attacks and will defend our community’s values of fairness, safety and due process,” Zrinski said.
Thomas Giovanni, the Republican nominee for executive in the fall election, said Americans want to see immigrants in the country illegally who’ve committed criminal offenses “swiftly and efficiently” deported, but that McClure, Zrinski and other elected officials live in denial that Northampton is a sanctuary county by refusing to cooperate with ICE.
“McClure’s executive order has repeatedly forced ICE officers to stake out local prisons and attempt arrests out in the open,” Giovanni said. “This is a clear disregard for the safety of our community.”
These are the Pa. counties and cities on Trump’s list of ‘sanctuary jurisdictions’
Lehigh County Executive Phil Armstrong said the county is “in no way, shape or form” a sanctuary jurisdiction, and didn’t understand how it ended up on such a list.
“We’re following the rule of law completely,” he said.
The county’s policy, posted at , states: “Lehigh County respects the dignity and basic humanity of every person within our borders, however, we strongly disagree with the position of some entities that our policies make us a sanctuary county. We do not shelter undocumented immigrants, nor do we interfere with any law enforcement agency or its efforts to identify and remove people who may be here unlawfully.”
The county says it cooperates with federal immigration officials “to the fullest extent legally possible,” in compliance with the U.S. . The ruling found that ICE detainers are requests and that local agencies can be held liable for unlawful detention if the detainer is found to be unconstitutional.
That case concerned a 2008 arrest in which ICE agents ordered an Allentown man detained, believing in error that the New Jersey native of Puerto Rican heritage was in the country illegally. The man, Ernesto Galarza, was held for three days in Lehigh County Jail.
Armstrong said the National Association of Counties, at a February meeting in Washington, warned the 2,000 officials in attendance that their liability for such errors could cost them dearly in lawsuits.
State Rep. Josh Siegel, the Democratic nominee for Lehigh County executive — like McClure, Armstrong is not running for reelection next year — said the county “is not a sanctuary county and I don’t support it becoming one, but we have an obligation to protect taxpayers from lawsuits that could arise from ICE’s disastrous and chaotic record of wrongful deportations.”
Immigrants in the country illegally who commit violent crimes or endanger residents should be deported but the expectation that ICE officials obtain judicial warrants to take people into custody is the “bare minimum” demanded by the legal system, Siegel said.
The Trump administration “once again demonstrates that it’s more concerned with theatrics and establishing an authoritarian order than due process and real public safety when it comes to immigration policy,” he added.
Republican executive candidate Roger MacLean, who supports cooperation with ICE, said he too was puzzled by the Trump’s administration’s announcement.
“The first thing we have to do is find out what’s going on,” he said. “What are they saying that we the county are in violation of that we were put on this list?”
Other cities in the list also pushed back and disputed the designation.
Baltimore’s Mayor Brandon Scott said on X that Baltimore is “not a sanctuary city,” noting that Baltimore does not control the city’s jails. In a statement on X, the Las Vegas government said it wasn’t sure why it was included it on the list and that it hoped to “clear up this misunderstanding.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
