Pittsburgh Mayor Gainey Vows to Oppose ICE

Pittsburg Mayor Ed Gainey said his administration will not cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) who have begun deporting criminal illegal immigrants, the Pittsburgh-Post Gazette reported this week.

"I am not going to be working with ICE. My administration will not work with ICE," said Gainey, speaking in a downtown Harrisburg hotel to the Pennsylvania Press Club. "We will do whatever is necessary to make our city more welcoming."

Gainey's statement comes a week after President Donald Trump has begun implementing his mass deportation of criminal migrants as the nation's liberal mayors grapple with the new reality of life under border czar Tom Homan.

"ICE is not going to end the situation of a failed immigration policy. It's not going to do it," Gainey said. "What it is going to do is create more situations where people feel scared. Where people don't feel safe. Where people do things they normally wouldn't do."

The former state lawmaker, who is running for reelection to run the Steel City, said the federal government needs to create an alternate way of dealing with the immigration crisis.

"Change it through the legislation," Gainey said. "We know what needs to happen. Where's the appetite to do it right?"

Gainey's intentions of opposing the Trump administration echoes that of other Democrat politicians following Denver Mayor Mike Johnston and Governors J.B. Pritzker of Illinois and Jared Polis of Colorado who launched their Governors Safeguarding Democracy in November with the intention of resisting the president's American First mandate.

Johnston initially promised a "Tiananmen Square" moment to push back against immigration officials but later dialed back his rhetoric saying he would be willing to work with ICE if they "reach out to us."

In the past week the mayors of Newark, New Jersey, Chicago, Baltimore, Atlanta, Houston, Los Angeles, and Miami have all independently come out against the administration's efforts and publicly announced their intentions to support the illegal immigrant communities in their cities.

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