Immigrant families in Pittsburgh deserve safety, dignity, and the assurance that our city will not be used as an arm of federal immigration enforcement.

With immigration arrests surging across Pennsylvania, we are calling on City Council to turn Mayor Ed Gainey’s informal policy of non-cooperation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) into binding law.

Nearly 1,500 Pittsburgh residents have already shown their support by signing a petition delivered to City Council. Now, we need you to act:

• Prohibit all city agencies, including Pittsburgh police, from collaborating with ICE.
• Ban the sharing of personal information about residents’ immigration status.
• Codify into law what our mayor has long promised—that Pittsburgh will remain a welcoming city for all who call it home.

Mayor Gainey has pledged: “We will do whatever necessary to make our city more welcoming.” But without legislation, immigrant Pittsburghers still live with uncertainty. As June Wearden of Allegheny United for Immigrants Rights and Justice said: “Pittsburgh can claim to be a welcoming city, but without the bedrock, certainty, the city won't turn on immigrant Pittsburghers, that will only be aspirational.”

Other cities—including Philadelphia and Chicago—have passed similar sanctuary policies that stop local police from collaborating with ICE. Pittsburgh should stand with them and protect its residents, not place them in fear of deportation.

City Council has the power to make this real. A public hearing is the first step, and we demand you move quickly to schedule it and pass legislation declaring Pittsburgh a sanctuary city.

Sign this petition to urge Pittsburgh City Council to protect immigrant families and enshrine our city’s values of compassion, dignity, and justice into law.