Westmoreland formally adopts jail policy on undocumented immigrants to shed sanctuary label

Mar. 14—Westmoreland County's Republican delegation used a news conference Thursday to assure residents the county is no place for undocumented immigrants in trouble with the law.

The county prison board unanimously approved a new policy that formalized standard operating procedure related to undocumented immigrants held at the jail.

Officials at the Hempfield lockup have been and will continue to comply with federal rules of immigration and customs enforcement, said Common Pleas Judge Harry Smail, a prison board member.

"This is not an alteration but a consistent pattern of the desires of Westmoreland County not to be a sanctuary county," he said during a two-minute prison board meeting.

County officials said they were trying to shed a label that the county is a sanctuary for undocumented immigrants. The Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank that promotes reduced immigration, declared Westmoreland a sanctuary county in 2014. The group contended the county "obstructs immigration enforcement and shields criminals."

The policy approved Thursday states that jail officials will regularly provide a list of people newly booked into the lockup to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, also known as ICE. It also said the county will comply with all immigration-related detainers, unless they are erroneously issued.

"We took steps today to clarify that for the public," said Doug Chew, a county commissioner and prison board chairman.

That type of detainer is rarely issued to someone at the jail, he said. He estimated there have been a couple such detainers annually for the past 10 years.

County and state officials said they've been the target of complaints from the public as a result of being included in the list, which they said prompted Thursday's action.

"Our office and my personal social media has been contacted by so many people about this, and I don't know how many times we can say the county commissioners never put us proactively on the list," said state Senate President Pro Tempore Kim Ward, R-Hempfield.

"Today was about clarity, clarifying what this county has long been doing and that's been consistently and fully cooperating with ICE," said state Rep. Eric Nelson, R-Hempfield.

For a person who is booked into the jail as an undocumented immigrant accused of a crime, their court case takes priority over the ICE detainer, Chew said. After the case is complete, ICE can take custody of the person.

That was the situation with two recent cases:

—Former Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Felipe Vazquez was expelled from the United States after serving his prison sentence for sexually assaulting a teen girl in Scottdale.

—Liwu Tian, a Chinese national who was convicted of attacking another man with a meat cleaver in Greensburg, was to be taken into custody by ICE after serving his sentence. He is not at the jail.

South Greensburg resident Patty Lewis stuck around after the prison board meeting to hear what officials had to say during the news conference.

"I'm totally against illegals," she said. "I'm totally for legals, but not illegals."

She said she is pleased the prison board approved the policy.

An official with the Center for Immigration Studies told the Trib this week that approval of the policy would result in the county being taken off the list.

Commissioner Sean Kertes, a prison board member, said public concern over the issue is part of the reason officials made the move Thursday.

"We want to make sure our residents understand that we hear them, we work for them," he said.

The prison board consists of the three county commissioners, Smail, District Attorney Nicole Ziccarelli, Sheriff James Albert and Controller Jeffrey Balzer.

Renatta Signorini is a TribLive reporter covering breaking news, crime, courts and Jeannette. She has been working at the Trib since 2005. She can be reached at rsignorini@triblive.com.