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Pa. police chief called ICE stops routine. Emails show he got a target list.

Five local departments in the 287(g) program helped ICE arrest construction workers in Danville. Records show the plan was set a day earlier.

Pa. police chief called ICE stops routine. Emails show he got a target list.
Stock photo. Photo by Declan Sun on Unsplash

For six weeks, the police chief in Mahoning Township, Pennsylvania, said his officers were just writing traffic tickets on Sept. 2 when immigrant construction workers in Danville ended up in ICE custody. Emails obtained through public records requests tell a different story. A day before the arrests, an ICE employee sent Chief Frederick Dyroff III a plan with locations, assignments for police, and a file called "targets.docx" listing about 13 people, the Pennsylvania Capital-Star reported in a story republished by WITF on Oct. 19.

The workers were arrested as they left a hospital construction site in Danville, Montour County. Records show at least 11 federal agents worked with officers from five local departments: Mahoning Township, Danville Borough, Riverside Borough, Hemlock Township and Montour Township. According to the emails, agents were to ride along with police making traffic stops while a drone operator tracked workers' vehicles as they left the lot, the Capital-Star reported.

What a 287(g) badge actually does

All five departments are in ICE's 287(g) program. In plain terms, federal law lets ICE sign written agreements that allow trained local officers to carry out some immigration-officer duties, such as investigating, arresting and detaining people, under ICE direction and supervision, according to ICE.

The agreements come with money. Mahoning Township police received $160,000 and Danville police $167,500 under their agreements, The Daily Item reported. The program pays up to $100,000 for new vehicles, $7,500 per trained officer for equipment, and reimbursement for salary, benefits and overtime, the paper reported. Dyroff told the paper his department has ordered a vehicle with some of the money.

The story kept changing

Right after the arrests, Dyroff described the stops as ordinary policing. "Vehicles were stopped for traffic violations, and if those persons were wanted by ICE, they were turned over to ICE," he told the Capital-Star, adding that it was "run-of-the-mill policing." At a Sept. 14 township supervisors meeting, he read a letter saying, "MTPD is not a federal immigration agency, nor are our officers attempting to assume that role," the Capital-Star and The Daily Item reported.

After the emails surfaced, Dyroff told the Capital-Star, "I'm redacting [sic] my [previous] statement," and "I'm telling you now it was an operation, and they were looking for certain targets." Asked why his September letter described a smaller role, he said, "Why was my letter not true to what we're talking about now? That's a good question."

Other chiefs pointed at Mahoning. "Mahoning, they orchestrated that event," said Kerry Parkes, the Riverside police chief. Greg Watson, the Danville Borough police chief, said Dyroff, not ICE, asked his department to help and that "my understanding is that my officers were only doing vehicle stops." A Danville use-of-force report describes a foot chase after one stop: "Three males took off."

Nobody will say how many were taken

ICE claimed it arrested "10 illegal aliens in Danville" after they "were encountered by local law enforcement during vehicle stops." Dyroff gave the same number of 10 at the township meeting, The Daily Item reported. Immigrant advocates citing witnesses say about 40 or more were detained. The Pennsylvania Immigration Coalition counted at least 41 on Sept. 2, WVIA reported. Asked about the drone and tactics, ICE said it "would never divulge investigative practices or procedures." No public record we found settles the count.

In September, a construction worker who is a U.S. citizen told the Capital-Star that his own company alone lost "nine, 10, 11 people," and that some of those detained were seeking asylum or had parole, the Capital-Star reported. The people hit hardest are the workers who were taken, the families waiting for them at home, and the coworkers who still have to drive past the same checkpoints to get to work. One witness quoted by the advocates said, "Since then, my fellow co-workers are terrified, and no one wants to work," WVIA reported.

What this means where you work

The lesson reaches well beyond Montour County. When a police department signs a 287(g) agreement, a routine traffic stop on the way home from a job site can become an immigration arrest, and the paper trail may not show it until someone files a records request. We condemn local police telling the public one thing while their emails show another.

Two practical steps. Read what to do if ICE comes to your work, our general guide for workers and coworkers. And ask your township or borough whether your police department has signed a 287(g) agreement; ICE publishes a list of participating agencies on its 287(g) page. For the toll of similar sweeps elsewhere, see our coverage of ICE patrols in California's Central Valley.

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