With a small cream-colored envelope and a large laminated letter in tow, Bishop David Barrett and the Rev. Hugh Shields entered the visitor\u2019s entrance on the northeast side of City Hall with a mission: to deliver a letter to Mayor Cherelle L. Parker, urging her to stand up to President Donald Trump and his threats to so-called sanctuary cities, like Philadelphia. <\/p>\n
But they didn\u2019t make it to the mayor\u2019s office \u2014 or even past the lobby. <\/p>\n
Security personnel intercepted the letter and promised it would be passed on to the mayor. The conversation between security and the two clergy members was lighthearted and ended with a handshake and a chat about the Philadelphia Eagles. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s unclear to Barrett and Hughes, who were representing New Sanctuary Movement \u2014 an interfaith immigrant advocacy organization \u2014 and more than a hundred clergy members who signed onto the letter, if or when they will receive a response from Parker. <\/p>\n
The mayor has rarely spoken on the sanctuary issue since Trump took office even as the policy enacted under her predecessor remains in place. <\/p>\n
But they still maintain their optimism that they\u2019ll get a meeting with the mayor after she receives the letter. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not here politically to protest,\u201d Shields said afterward to a crowd of rallying clergy members and allies. \u201cWe\u2019re here to say \u2018God wants us to say something.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Clergy members and immigration activists were hoping to facilitate a collaboration with Parker on protecting the city\u2019s immigrant communities \u2014 an effort that the Parker administration has been widely keeping out of the public eye.<\/p>\n
City Solicitor Renee Garcia said in a statement to The Inquirer Thursday that \u201cthe City of Philadelphia\u2019s 2016 executive orders on detainers remain in place, and we remain a Welcoming City.<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s that 2016 executive order from Mayor Jim Kenney \u2014 who frequently and publicly criticized Trump during his time in office \u2014 that has likely landed Philadelphia on a list with other major cities deemed by the Trump administration as \u201csanctuary jurisdictions.\u201d <\/p>\n The 2016 Kenney executive order prohibits Philadelphia\u2019s jails from honoring detainer requests, which consists of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement asking local jails to hold inmates suspected of immigration violations for longer to help facilitate arrests by federal immigration agents.<\/p>\n The Parker administration\u2019s defense against Trump on this issue has come in rare public spurts. Garcia said in May that the city is willing to litigate<\/a> if the Trump administration tries to touch federal funding, but the mayor won\u2019t say how they are responding<\/a> to the Department of Justice\u2019s letter demanding them to end their immigrant-friendly policies. <\/p>\n The letter that Barrett and Shields hoped to deliver Thursday both praised Parker for her administration\u2019s willingness to litigate and the executive order staying in place.<\/p>\n \u201cDo not back down. Do not surrender,\u201d the letter urged. <\/p>\n Those sentiments were echoed in an accompanying rally organized by New Sanctuary Movement on the north side of City Hall Thursday. A large group of allies gathered with colorful signs amid vibrant songs and impassioned speeches by activists and faith leaders.<\/p>\n \u201cMayor, go forward, God\u2019s got your back,\u201d said Elder Melanie DuBose, of Live Free Philly, a police accountability group.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With a small cream-colored envelope and a large laminated letter in tow, Bishop David Barrett and the Rev.…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":200770,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5132],"tags":[5229,1448,2830,1311,111084,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-200769","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-pa","10":"tag-pennsylvania","11":"tag-philadelphia","12":"tag-philadelphia-sanctuary-city-immigration-cherelle-parker-letter","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-united-states-of-america","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","17":"tag-us","18":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115148579409229309","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200769"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200769\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}