Philly City Council passes ICE Out legislation, limiting ICE operations within the city
The bill package passed during Thursday’s council meeting after being fast-tracked out of committee last week.
By Nigel Thompson. On April 24,2026.
Community members celebrate the passing of the legislation at City Hall on Thursday, April 23, 2026. (Photo by Chris Mansfield and Durrell Hospedale/PHL City Council)
Philadelphia now has some of the most stringent policies targeting ICE operations of any city in the U.S. after its City Council passed a package of seven bills aimed at reigning in the conduct of ICE agents and putting up more guardrails between the agency and the city’s immigrant communities.
Known collectively as the ICE Out Legislation, the package was first introduced back in January by chief sponsors, Councilmembers Kendra Brooks and Rue Landau. Both councilmembers celebrated in City Council chambers upon its final passage with the many stakeholders who helped craft the package.
“This legislation shows that Philadelphians are not afraid to stand up to the Trump administration,” said Brooks. “We’re not afraid to stand up for our neighbors, and we do not take kindly to bullies who try to intimidate people in our communities.”
Members of groups like Juntos, the New Sanctuary Movement, PIC, and others carry signs in support of the proposed bills. (Photo by Chris Mansfield and Durrell Hospedale/PHL City Council)
Landau, like Brooks, also credited the many advocacy organizations — such as the Pennsylvania Immigration Coalition (PIC) — that partnered with their offices on the package, and got the word out in their communities about its potential impact.
“Philly is now on the map,” she said. “The entire country, and possibly the world, is watching us as having some of the strongest ICE out protections in the entire country. We stood together, and we told them what the community wants.”
The seven bills included in the package do the following:
Prohibit data-sharing agreements between the city and ICE
Prohibit the city from honoring ICE detainer requests unless the agency presents a signed judicial warrant
Bans all law enforcement officers in the city, including ICE agents and Philadelphia Police officers, from concealing their identities with masks or operating unmarked vehicles during operations
Bars ICE from using city-owned property as staging areas for raids and bans all city employees from granting the agency access to non-public areas of city-owned property
Prohibits discrimination based on immigration status
Sister Sharon White, sporting a t-shirt from the New Sanctuary Movement, told councilmembers during the public comment section of the anxiety she sees stoked by ICE in immigrant communities across the city.
“The fear and trauma I witness in immigrant and asylum-seeking communities here in Philadelphia go beyond whatever I could have imagined,” she said.
In a press release following the bill’s passage, Aurora Muñoz with the National Domestic Workers Alliance — of which many members are undocumented immigrants — called it “a victory for immigrant communities, domestic workers, and the dignity and safety of our city.”
“Low-wage workers know what’s at stake when immigration enforcement reaches into everyday life — fear keeps people from reporting abuse, asserting their rights, and seeking care,” said Muñoz. “This legislation ensures our city chooses people over fear.”
Council members reviewed and signed the bill package on Thursday morning. (Photo by Chris Mansfield and Durrell Hospedale/PHL City Council)
What’s next?
Mayor Cherelle Parker must sign the bill package into law, which she is expected to do despite her administration citing some “legally troubling” language in pieces of the legislation during a committee hearing last week. However, representatives for the administration, which included City Solicitor Renee Garcia and Director of the Office of Immigrant Affairs Charles Elison, did not signal they would oppose the bill package.
Their argument at the time was that the Parker administration was already enforcing some of the proposed legislation by upholding executive orders pertaining to immigration policy that were signed by previous mayors.
Regardless, Garcia said the law department would work to implement the bills in the package upon its passage and signature by the mayor.
A member of New Sanctuary Movement holds a sign that reads “ICE Out, Safe Healthy Homes in” at Thursday’s council meeting. (Photo by Chris Mansfield and Durrell Hospedale/PHL City Council)
A future lawsuit?
With the passage of the ICE Out legislation, the new stringent policies regarding the agency could bring the city into the crosshairs of the Trump administration, which hasn’t been shy about litigating with other cities and states over policies it deems “anti-ICE.”
Most recently, the Trump administration sued the State of Connecticut and City of New Haven over policies that make them so-called “sanctuary” jurisdictions, according to the administration.
So far, almost all of the lawsuits brought by the Trump administration against states and cities regarding their ICE policies have been thrown out. In Colorado and Denver, a judge ruled the state and city could continue to refuse their resources to ICE to help expand its immigration crackdown. Last year, a judge in New York also rejected a Trump administration challenge of a law barring immigration arrests at state and local courthouses.