State and local police in Pennsylvania are helping to detain and initiate deportation against undocumented immigrants who have no criminal records at a higher rate than any other state. They are doing so via tactics which are questionable if not illegal, and could open their departments to civil damages, according to an investigation by ProPublica and The Philadelphia Inquirer.



One installment in the three-part series shines a spotlight on Cumberland County-based state trooper Luke C. Macke. Saying Macke's name turned up repeatedly in complaints from people alleging overzealous law enforcement, reporters from the two publications scrutinized a batch of cases where Macke turned people over to federal immigration agents.



According to the article, "he turned over at least 19 undocumented immigrants to federal deportation officers after interrogating them about their legal status and detaining them without warrants."



The article further details separate incidents involving local police offices in central Pennsylvania communities including Lemoyne and Camp Hill.



Overall, the articles concluded the Philadelphia Immigration and Customs Enforcement office arrested more undocumented immigrants without criminal convictions than any of the other 23 regions in the U.S. last year. Undocumented immigrants without criminal records made up 64 percent of "at large" arrests last year in the Philadelphia ICE field office, compared with 38 percent in the rest of the U.S., said the report.



There's a national debate over how much state and local police should cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the federal agency known as ICE. It comes amid President Donald Trump's focus on deporting illegal immigrant regardless of whether or not they have committed crimes. Under President Obama, ICE focused on those who had committed crimes.

Some states have placed limits on how their officers can question immigrants about their legal status or hold them for ICE without a warrant. More than 400 counties have restricted their officers involvement with ICE. A relatively small number have partnered with ICE to deputize the local officer to enforce immigration laws.



The Inquirer and ProPublica wrote, "Pennsylvania is in neither group, with no ICE partnership and no state-imposed restriction. The result is heightened uncertainty for immigrants about encounters with local and state authorities who might take it upon themselves to act unofficially as surrogates for the federal immigration agency. This is especially true in the center of the state, where anti-immigrant feelings run high."



The intensity of the effort in central Pennsylvania is likely related to the presence of Interstate 81, which has long drawn special police attention because of its role as a major corridor in drug trade and crime throughout the northeast.



A state police spokesman told the two publications the agency has no specific guidelines for how troopers should handle encounters with undocumented immigrants. State police declined to address the reporters' questions in full.



Gov. Wolf told the publications the situation warrants a review of how state police are handling the cases and of the department's policies.



The article stated: The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that it is unconstitutional to prolong traffic stops beyond the time it takes to address the traffic violation. In addition, the court has written that "detaining individuals solely to verify their immigration status would raise constitutional concerns." The Fourth Amendment protects noncitizens as well as citizens from illegal searches and seizures.



The article detailed a case where a Lemoyne officer pulled a restaurant cook over for speeding, discovered he had no license, and detained him so an ICE agent could interrogate him by phone. The officer then drove the man to a spot well outside his patrol area to turn him over to ICE.



The article quotes Lemoyne Mayor Gale Gallo, involved in overseeing regional police, as saying, "In my view, he'd be within his authority to make sure that anyone driving illegally would not continue to drive in our borough."



Reflecting a different law enforcement approach, the article quoted Carlisle Police Chief Taro Landis as saying, "We have rules we have to go by -- rules of criminal procedure, crime code and vehicle code -- and none of them allow us to take someone into custody without a warrant."



According to the article, Landis expressed "surprise" that some officers in Pennsylvania don't follow those rules regarding undocumented immigrants.