At the Feb. 12 Westmoreland County Commissioners meeting, 20 residents questioned Sheriff James Albert’s secretive, unilateral agreement to cooperate with ICE, violating public trust in local police and bypassing the authority of the commissioners. This strains resources the sheriff already claims are scarce.
Commissioners initially stated they had no control over this decision, but when pressed, especially concerning their fiduciary responsibilities and legal liabilities should ICE overreach and with the potential violence against county residents, they admitted the sheriff’s agreement was null and void without their agreement. Commissioner Ted Kopas has generated a statement condemning this agreement. Commissioner Sean Kertes refused to comment on his support of this statement but did state only 14 undocumented immigrants have been found in Westmoreland County in the last two years.
Given recent events in Minneapolis, the introduction of ICE into this county provides no addition to community safety, but rather increases the tendency toward violence by untrained, out-of-control thugs who are trying to meet quotas by kidnapping American citizens and undocumented immigrants.
I urge the commissioners to immediately rescind this agreement and adopt a policy prohibiting the Sheriff’s Department from collecting immigration status information, sharing data with ICE, holding anyone on an ICE retainer or contributing to the takeover of our county by this increasingly fascist regime.
Harold Franklin Weaver
Hempfield