Tensions ran high and anger boiled to the surface during Oakmont’s council meeting Tuesday in the wake of a borough resident being detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

Jose Flores, 47, was taken by ICE agents Thursday morning after being approached in front of his Oakmont home while preparing to take his daughter, Lily, to school. She is an elementary school student in Riverview.

As of Wednesday, Flores — originally from Nicaragua — was being held in Northern Regional Correctional Facility and Jail near Moundsville, W.Va., according to ICE’s detainee locator. His wife, Hariett, also from Nicaragua, said they are in the legal asylum process and have five-year work visas.

Flores has a hearing scheduled for 9 a.m. Feb. 19 in U.S. Immigration Court in Newark, N.J., in front of Judge Tamar Wilson.

“We as borough council demand justification for the arrest and detainment of one of our residents on Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026,” Council President Nancy Ride said on behalf of council. “It is our understanding that Jose Flores was forcibly taken away from his family and, in front of his 8-year-old child, while buckling her into the car and taking her to school. He was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. It’s our understanding that Mr. Flores was legally allowed to work in this country while awaiting a pending asylum claim. We feel it is our duty to demand justification for this action that traumatized an 8-year-old and her family.”

Residents crowded council chambers Tuesday night to hear Oakmont council discuss proposed legislation stating the borough will not be working with ICE.

The resolution

According to Mayor Sophia Facaros, the federal department offered the borough an option to enter a 287(g) agreement, which allows local police departments to aid ICE in immigration enforcement. The partnership is not a contract but rather an agreement into which law enforcement can enter by submitting an application online.

The resolution states the borough will neither enable ICE-related civil law enforcement nor be entered into the 287(g) agreement.

“We have to do what we can to protect our citizens, to calm down our citizens,” Facaros said.

The legislation states, in part: “Fostering a welcoming environment for all people, regardless of race, religion, ethnicity, national origin or immigration status, enhances the borough’s cultural fabric, economic growth, and overall well-being and prosperity for current and future generations, and whereas, all individuals must enjoy equal protection of the law, regardless of immigration status, including the right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure. …

“The borough will neither initiate nor accept any requests from the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement to enter into any program or memorandum of understanding that would commit borough time, funds, efforts or resources toward noncriminal administrative enforcement activities, including entering into any agreement which authorize any law enforcement officer of the borough to apply and enforce federal immigration law.”

The resolution will be voted on during the borough’s Feb. 17 meeting.

Facaros said council will send a communication to ICE upon the resolution’s passing.

“There’s many things we’re going to ask for, not to say that we’re going to get it, but we are going to take a position, and take a stand and show that what happened on Thursday, we do not want ever happening again in this town,” Facaros said.

Facaros said she was shocked, angry and upset when she heard about the ICE arrest. She began contacting other borough leaders and speaking with residents.

“My first reaction was ‘how could this happen?’” Facaros told TribLive. “How could they come in unannounced and not contact us?”

Facaros said residents who contacted her expressed their anger at the incident and asked for the borough to stop it from happening again.

She said the arrest has changed the culture of trust within the town.

“I think it’s heightened everybody’s awareness now to be a little more alert,” Facaros said. “We have a high trust in this town, and this kind of weakened it.”

Fifty-three law enforcement agencies across Pennsylvania have active partnerships with ICE — 20 in Western Pennsylvania, according to the ICE website as of Jan. 30.

In Allegheny County, three law enforcement entities have partnerships: Monroeville 6th Ward constable, Springdale Borough Police Department and Stowe Township Police Department.

In Westmoreland County, three local agencies are partnered with ICE: Unity Township constable, Lower Burrell 4th Ward constable and Westmoreland County Sheriff’s Office.

“We do not enforce immigration law, administrative warrants. Ours are straight criminal, so we don’t stop on a traffic stop. We don’t ask your immigration status. We don’t ask any of that. Ours is straight enforcement of Pennsylvania laws. So (residents) should feel safe to come to us for any reason,” Oakmont police Chief Michael Ford said.

Ford added that the department does fulfill requests of assistance from local, state and federal law enforcement for the safety of officers and public.

“That is completely different than taking part in operations,” Ford said.

Resident voices

Various residents spoke during the meeting.

“In my life, I’ve never seen an Oakmont officer wear a mask. I’ve never seen a county policeman wear a mask. I’ve never seen a state policeman, nor when they had to employ the Pennsylvania National Guard, wear a mask,” Richard Williams, an Oakmont resident for 73 years, said during the meeting. “The mask makes me worry. That’s not a political thing.”

Rich Kelly, an eight-year Oakmont resident, contacted the borough prior to the meeting and spoke again publicly to urge the borough to make a clear non-cooperation policy. He wanted the borough to tell the community where leaders stood on the matter.

“I personally think this is atrocious, what’s happening with ICE and the operations they’re carrying out,” Kelly said after the meeting. “And for it to happen in our backyard is really, it just brings it to the forefront of your mind and your life.”

Kelly said he has daughters who attend Riverview, and the thought of what Flores’ daughter went through was horrifying. He said he was encouraged by the action taken by the borough, but he thinks more can be done.

“Unfortunately, it almost feels like it’s too late,” Kelly said. “I don’t think anybody could have stopped what happened, and I fear that we wouldn’t be able to stop anything if it were to happen again.”

Some council members took a moment to speak their opinions about the situation.

Councilman Jim Parsons has been in contact with Flores’ family and officials to help them get set up with an immigration attorney.

“Jose and Hariett arrived in the United States four years ago from Nicaragua, and they applied for asylum. Their cases are pending. They knew that there was always a chance that their application would be denied and that they might be deported, they knew that.

“But they didn’t know, what they didn’t expect was masked men, and SUVs with tinted windows staking out Jose in the early morning hours and grabbing him right here in Oakmont as he put his second grader in the car to take her to school. Leaving that little girl traumatized, crying herself to sleep every night since. That’s the kind of thing that happened in Nicaragua. Not, they thought, here in the United States of America,” Parsons said.

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