Glassport’s police force signs ICE agreement

The borough joins Springdale, Pitcairn and Versailles as Allegheny County communities with similar arrangements.

By JAMES ENGEL
TribLive

Glassport police have signed a cooperation agreement with federal immigration authorities after the agency detained more than a dozen people in the small Mon Valley borough earlier this year.

The department, which formalized the arrangement Sept. 23, is the latest Allegheny County force to sign a 287(g) agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. It follows nearby Versailles police, which signed a pact with ICE last month.

Glassport police Chief Shawn De-Verse confirmed that he signed the agreement, but said the deal is still in its preliminary stages.

He said Glassport Council had not taken a vote to approve the measure, and recent meeting agendas make no mention of the subject.

He previously told TribLive in March that ICE had arrested 17 people he described as illegal immigrants in the borough, a community of around 4,400 located south of McKeesport and across the Mon from U.S. Steel’s Irvin Works in West Mifflin.

DeVerse said nothing in particular prompted his recent decision to sign.

“At the end of the day, if they’re going to be in and out of the community, I want to have a hand in it,” DeVerse told TribLive Thursday.

Despite concerns raised throughout the country regarding ICE tactics and training, DeVerse — who also serves as South Allegheny School Board President — said he saw the agreement as an effort to assist a fellow law enforcement agency.

Still, he said he didn’t believe Glassport had any substantial population of undocumented people, and he was unsure whether the agreement would have much practical effect in the borough.

The agreement “allows local officers to enforce limited immigration authority while performing routine police duties, such as identifying an alien at a DUI checkpoint and sharing information directly with ICE,” according to an ICE website.

In such cases, an ICE supervisor would determine next steps, according to the site. Officers “may also exercise limited immigration authority as active participants on ICE-led task forces,” the site says.

Glassport police had already informally assisted agents when they visited the borough, DeVerse said. ICE even sent an agent to the Glassport police station to notify the department that the agency was in the area earlier this year, he previously told TribLive.

“They’ve been 100% respectful,” DeVerse said. “I’ve never had any issues.”

Meghan DeVerse — Glassport council president and the chief’s daughter — did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment. Anthony Colecchi, the borough’s interim mayor, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Colecchi, who previously served as council president, became mayor in August after the resignation of Keith DiMarco amid charges he covertly planted a camera in his apartment that captured his adult stepdaughter bathing.

Glassport joins Springdale, Pitcairn and Versailles as the only departments in Allegheny County to maintain a cooperation agreement with ICE.

Springdale Borough police, who signed the agreement last November, have been involved in the arrest of at least two people who they later handed over to ICE — a local father of two and a visiting laborer who ICE says has a criminal record.

Pitcairn police, who also cover nearby Wilmerding, have also been involved in multiple detentions, Mayor Margaret Stevick told Trib-Live in August.

The pacts have led to concern among local immigrants and continued discord in Springdale. They also spurred a failed motion to end the agreement in Pitcairn.

Officials in Stowe — which had maintained a cooperation agreement since last December — recently balked under public pressure, however. Elected officials in the Ohio River borough backed out of their agreement last month.

DeVerse said he was not concerned about potential pushback regarding the deal he signed.

“No matter what direction you go, there’s going to be someone with something to say,” the chief said.

Several Allegheny County municipalities — of which there are 130 distinct local governments — have passed resolutions forbidding local officers from assisting ICE, including Oakmont, Fox Chapel, Plum and McCandless.

Allegheny County also bars its employees from cooperating with the agency, while the City of Pittsburgh prohibits ICE from staging on some of its property.