Over 35 Allegheny County residents and members of the Pittsburgh community gathered at the courthouse last Tuesday evening to demand County Council pass proposed ordinance 13809-26, banning county agencies and employees from cooperating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Bethany Hallam, Allegheny County council representative at-large, drafted the ordinance.

“I think it’s a no brainer,” Hallam said. “The county should not be doing the federal government’s work for them.”

Hallam said the ordinance has been sitting in the Public Safety Committee since she introduced it 30 days ago and stayed there until March 2, where it advanced by vote of 4-3.

“There is irreparable harm that happens every single minute that we wait to pass this bill,” Hallam said. “We should not be supporting mass secret police kidnapping people off the street without any lawful orders, and we definitely shouldn’t be using our tax dollars to pay for that to happen.”

The county council has a 14-1 Democratic majority.

The council will vote to pass, or kill, the ordinance during their scheduled meeting March 10.

There were so many residents of the county who signed up to provide public comment that the council motioned to shorten the typical three minute open comment period to 1 minute and 30 seconds.

Only five of the 41 total speakers were against the ordinance. Three of those opposed came from the same family.

An overwhelming majority of speakers were in full support of the ordinance.

The council heard from school teachers, parents and first-time speakers who cited the events following ICE’s involvement in Minneapolis, Minn., where ICE agents shot and killed two US citizens, as a reason the council should vote in favor of the ordinance, amongst other things.

Tanisha Long, the Allegheny County Organizer for the Abolitionist Law Center, also spoke in favor of the ordinance.

“I come here as a person of color and not just a family of people who have never been affected by immigration,” Long said. “I come here as someone who understands that this action by council is overwhelmingly supported by people in this community and that it is not controversial and as a light lift.”

A nurse from Pittsburgh’s 11 Ward, Michelle Boyle, spoke in favor of the ordinance.

“I’m starting to see an increase of people who are coming in with a full-sized stroke because they’re afraid of coming into the hospital,” Boyle said.

She referenced Alex Pretti, a nurse killed by ICE agents in Minneapolis, when she said, “We already know that they’re willing to shoot nurses.”

Chair of the Religious Leaders Caucus in Pittsburgh and retired teacher Reverend Darlene Figgs was one of two pastors to speak in favor of the ordinance.

“I’m standing here to say no to abuses of civil rights, no to racial profiling, no to illegal stops, searches, detainments and arrests,” Figgs said. “I’m standing here to say that we should not partner in any way with ICE here in Allegheny County.”

After hearing from everyone in attendance who signed up to speak, the council motioned to adjourn.