Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey and U.S. Rep. Summer Lee vowed Wednesday to do what they can to protect constituents hurt by President Donald Trump’s administration — but warned they can’t go it alone.

Standing up to the White House will take advocacy from labor unions, activists and civil liberties organizations, said Lee, a Swissvale Democrat, as she urged about 50 people gathered at a Downtown Pittsburgh town hall to stand up to federal policies they believe are wrong.

“We need unprecedented unity right now,” Gainey said.

The pair have been vocal critics of Trump, lambasting his efforts to slash federal funding, shrink the size of the federal workforce and deport immigrants.

While Lee said she is working to hold Trump and the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, accountable, lawmakers cannot keep Trump in check by themselves, she said.

During the town hall at the SEIU 32BJ labor union office, Lee and Gainey denounced the rise in deportations, efforts to roll back diversity initiatives, a Trump order looking to eliminate labor unions for some federal workers and funding cuts that could impact key areas like education and health care.

At Casa San Jose, a Beechview-based immigrant advocacy nonprofit, reports have been flooding in about ICE raids, according to the group’s Jaime Martinez, who attended the town hall.

Casa San Jose’s 24-hour hotline fielded 149 calls in March alone from people concerned about immigration enforcement and received reports of 20 detentions, said Martinez, an organizer.

Gainey has vowed to not cooperate with federal immigration agents. The mayor has also signed executive orders aimed at combating housing discrimination in the face of Trump targeting some fair housing protections.

The Trump administration Wednesday pushed back on efforts by Democrats to constrain the president’s agenda.

“No amount of Democrat obstruction will stop President Trump from delivering on the promises he made to the American people,” Harrison Fields, a White House spokesperson, said in a written statement. “Radical, out-of-touch Democrats should clean up the disasters they’ve created in their own states before trying to promote their failed policies to the rest of America.”

Broad concerns

The mayor has joined Lee in warning of the dangers of cutting Medicare and Medicaid or the local field office for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Congressional Democrats fear Medicare and Medicaid could be in danger from Musk’s cost-cutting spree.

An East Liberty Social Security office and a Downtown federal building shared by multiple federal agencies were briefly placed on a list of federal buildings that could be sold. That list has since been removed from the General Services Administration’s website.

LGBTQ activists have said UPMC stopped providing gender-affirming care for transgender youth. The mayor Wednesday said he ordered his law department to investigate ways the city could address the new policy, which he rallied against earlier this month.

The Trump administration has targeted transgender people, aiming to end federal support for gender transitions for people under 19.

Lee on Wednesday said the SAVE Act recently passed by the U.S. House of Representatives would make it harder for some to vote with additional identification requirements.

”It can functionally disenfranchise millions of people,” Lee said, adding it could be particularly challenging for some married women who have changed their last names or transgender people who picked new names to match their gender identity.

York County Republican Rep. Scott Perry, a co-sponsor of the SAVE Act, wrote on X: “Requiring proof of citizenship to register for federal elections is a solution to voter fraud…”

Gainey on Tuesday wrote letters to Pennsylvania’s U.S. senators, Democrat John Fetterman and Republican Dave McCormick, expressing concerns that federal spending cuts could harm the quality of life for everyday Pittsburghers.

“It seems clear that proposals from the Trump Administration will wreak havoc on essential public services, leaving people worse off through lost health coverage, less money for groceries, weakened access to a quality public education, and other basic services,” the mayor wrote.

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