This coming June in Pennsylvania, any county that agrees to support U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations will lose its current liability insurance coverage should litigation follow ICE activity.
More to the point, the Pennsylvania Counties Risk Pool (PCoRP), which is the insurance carrier that provides coverage through the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania (CCAP), approved the change that will now exclude insurance coverage for what are known as 287(g) agreements. This is the program where local police departments work with and support federal law enforcers, including ICE.
According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, “The change would not apply to county agreements with the federal government to house ICE detainees in their jails.”
What this means is that any Pennsylvania county that helps ICE in its illegal immigration enforcement work, such as doing investigative work and apprehending illegal aliens, will not be covered under its regular law enforcement insurance. The PCoRP decision seems designed to discourage local law enforcement from cooperating with ICE through its 287(g) program.
The federal 287(g) program is an ICE initiative that enables and trains local police departments to help in identifying and detaining illegal aliens who are involved in criminal activity. The program, which began in 1996 under President Bill Clinton, deputizes state and local law enforcement officers to perform certain ICE functions, working in collaboration with ICE.
The latest change to PCoRP insurance coverage will make it necessary for any local police agency in Pennsylvania to purchase additional insurance coverage on top of their existing PCoRP coverage if they work with ICE and certain other federal agencies. It is not yet clear what the increased cost for local departments will be and what the rate of coverage denial will be.
According to the Post-Gazette, “Nine counties across the state have signed 287(g) partnerships with ICE to help enforce immigration law, including Beaver, Butler, Franklin, Washington and Lebanon counties.”
Butler County Sheriff Michael Slupe told the Butler Eagle newspaper, “We are seeking alternative liability insurance,” adding, “We’re still going to do what we’re doing. PCoRP made a political decision not to cover any task force, not just us.”
The Butler Eagle reported that Leslie Osche, the Butler County Commissioners’ chairwoman, said that these most recent changes “will exclude from coverage multi-jurisdictional task forces or teams including drug task forces, warrant service, undercover investigations, school resource officers, and any employee acting under the direction of any federal agency dealing with immigration enforcement.”
Clearly, the CCAP made a calculated political decision and decided to broaden the policy to make it look like it wasn’t targeting ICE enforcement support, but given the timing and the nature of the change, it’s hard to conclude anything else.
Meanwhile, any Pennsylvania local law enforcement department that wants to engage in other types of multi-jurisdictional task forces will now pay a higher price just to do their jobs. For some local governments, this leftist-driven change will disincentivize local law enforcement from going after a wide range of crimes, like illicit drug and gang activity, not just illegal immigration.
The Post-Gazette reported that PCoRP sent an email to Pennsylvania counties in March that detailed the change. In it, PCoRP said, “PCoRP’s intent is not to provide coverage for these types of claims when the agreements make clear, or implicitly express, that individuals performing activities under the agreements are acting under the supervision and direction of the federal government and not the county.”
This is just Pennsylvania, but as we’ve seen time and again from the left, moves like this are pilot projects. If it works in Pennsylvania, other states where Democrats have the power will roll it out.
The PCoRP is using the backdoor approach to hinder the operations of ICE and the enforcement of U.S. immigration law and border protection. It’s creating an environment where a broad range of crimes and criminals will now flourish in Pennsylvania. It’s an invitation to illegals, gangs, and organized crime to come to the state and do what they do. Why? Because “mean orange man bad.”
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