In Pennsylvania, constables work alongside magistrate district judges, and have the power to arrest someone with an outstanding warrant, or to serve eviction or other civil papers. They can provide courtroom security or be called to keep order at a polling place, reported WESA and the Pennsylvania Capital-Star.
While none
of those duties involve federal immigration enforcement, constables now make up more than one-quarter of the 287(g) signatories in
Pennsylvania: Twenty of the 73 law enforcement agencies ICE claims to have
enrolled in the state are constables. (The agency claims to have 1,500 partner
agencies nationwide.)
Participants
in 287(g) programs receive training and can gain access to federal grants and
other assistance. But several constables from around the state contacted by
WESA said that, they sought to engage with the program,
only to be told their participation had been suspended.
Indeed,
some critics of 287(g) programs say that constables should have no part in them
at all, in part for the very reasons that led to confusion in Monroeville.
While
constables have limited police powers and work closely with local courts, they
are not part of any state or local police department. They act as independent
contractors rather than court employees. They are elected locally, but have
jurisdiction across the commonwealth.
And
University of Pittsburgh law professor David Harris says a federal order for
detention isn’t the kind of thing a constable can enforce.
“At the
very least, it’s unclear that a constable would have any authority to make a
move, an arrest, a detention of a person under one of those documents that
comes from ICE,” he said.
Ari
Shapell, a staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union of
Pennsylvania, said he believes constables lack the authority under both federal
and state law to enter into the agreements.
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