Philadelphia’s bombastic district attorney, Larry Krasner, is no stranger to opposition from within his own party, but the anger directed at him last week after he said ICE agents are “wannabe Nazis” was more pronounced than usual.
After making the comparison, Krasner faced a wave of criticism, including from Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, who called the comments “abhorrent” and said the rhetoric doesn’t help “bring down the temperature.”
But the progressive district attorney said Monday that he would not back down, saying “these are people who have taken their moves from a Nazi playbook and a fascist playbook.”
“Governor Shapiro is not meeting the moment,” Krasner said in an interview. “The moment requires that we call a subgroup of people within federal law enforcement — who are killing innocent people, physically assaulting innocent people, threatening and punishing the use of video — what they are. … Just say it. Don’t be a wimp.”
Krasner pointed to a speech by Rabbi Joachim Prinz at the March on Washington in 1963: “Bigotry and hatred are not the most urgent problem. The most urgent, the most disgraceful, the most shameful, and the most tragic problem is silence.”
In invoking that speech, Krasner said: “A reminder, Mr. Governor: Silence equals death.”
Krasner’s defense came after days of criticism from across the political spectrum, ranging from the White House press secretary to Democratic members of Congress. And it punctuated a yearslong history of conflict with Shapiro.
The governor and Philadelphia’s top law enforcement official have feuded politically,sparred in court, and disagreed on policy. In 2019 — when lawyers from Krasner’s office decamped to work for then-Attorney General Shapiro — DA’s office staffers referred to Shapiro’s office as “Paraguay,” a reference to the country where Nazis took refuge after the war.
Last week, during a news conference about proposed restrictions on immigration enforcement in Philadelphia, the district attorney said he would “hunt down” and prosecute U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents who commit crimes in the city.
“There will be accountability now. There will be accountability in the future. There will be accountability after [Trump] is out of office,” Krasner said. “If we have to hunt you down the way they hunted down Nazis for decades, we will find your identities.”
During an interview Thursday on Fox News’ Special Report with Bret Baier, Shapiro was asked about Krasner’s comparison of ICE agents to Nazis and called the comments “unacceptable.”
“It is abhorrent and it is wrong, period, hard stop, end of sentence,” Shapiro said.
Several other Democrats in political and media circles weighed in. U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, a Pennsylvania Democrat who has at times sided with Trump on immigration matters, appeared on Fox News and said he “strongly” condemned Krasner’s language.
He said that “members of ICE are not Nazis.”
“That’s gross,” Fetterman said. “Do not compare anyone to Nazis. Don’t use that kind of rhetoric. That can incite violence.”
U.S. Rep. Chris Deluzio, a Democrat who represents parts of Western Pennsylvania, in an interview with the Washington Examiner contrasted his own approach with Krasner’s, saying: “I reserve throwing the phrase Nazis at actual Nazis. I don’t just throw that around.”
And State Rep. Manuel Guzman Jr., a Democrat who represents a significant Latino population in Berks County, wrote on social media Friday: “I really, really want Krasner to chill tf out.”
“I get it. We want to protect our immigrant community,” Guzman wrote, “but I question if constantly poking the bear is the right strategy. At the end of the day it’s my community that is under siege.”
And U.S. Rep. Dan Meuser, a Republican who represents parts of Northeast Pennsylvania, appeared on Newsmax and called Krasner a “psychopath with a badge.”
Meuser — who considered challenging Shapiro for governor with Trump’s backing but ultimately decided not to run — also on social media decried “the Left’s silence and, in many cases, encouragement of this rhetoric.”
Krasner doubled down. In an interview on CNN on Thursday, he criticized Fetterman as “not a real Democrat” and also said, “There are some people who are all in on the fascist takeover of this country who do not like the comparison to Nazi Germany.”
He said that when he promised to “hunt down” federal agents who kill someone in his jurisdiction, he was attempting to make a point that there is no statute of limitations on homicide.
The interviewer, Kaitlan Collins, asked Krasner whether he could have made that point without comparing agents to Nazis.
“Why would I do that?” Krasner responded. “They’re taking almost everything they do out of the Nazi playbook.”
Gov. Josh Shapiro is backing a proposal to ban cell phones from Pennsylvania classrooms, joining a growing chorus of parents, teachers, and officials seeking to curb school disruptions and detach kids from addictive devices.
“It’s time for us to get distractions out of the classroom and create a healthier environment in our schools,” Shapiro said in a post on X on Thursday.
He called on Pennsylvania lawmakers to pass a bill that would require schools to ban the use of cell phones during the school day, “from the time they start class until the time they leave for home.”
The endorsement from the Democratic governor — who could promote the issue during his budget address Tuesday — comes as school cell phone bans have increasingly become the norm: 31 states have restrictions of some kind on phones, including 23 states with “bell-to-bell” bans barring the use of phones the entire school day, according to Education Week.
Pennsylvania currently lets schools set their own cell phone policies — and districts have taken a patchwork of approaches. Pennsylvania in 2024 implemented a pilot program allowing schools to access funding for lockable pouches that students could place their phones in during the day, but few districts took the state up on the money.
Some schools have banned cell phones during classes, including by asking students to place their phones in hanging shoe organizers on the backs of classroom doors.
Advocates for entirely phone-free school days say such measures aren’t sufficient. Phones are still buzzing, and if class ends early, “kids are constantly looking at it,” said Kristen Beddard, a parent from the Pittsburgh suburb of Sewickley and leader in the PA Unplugged coalition seeking to curb children’s reliance on phones and screens, in and out of school.
Barring phones only during class time is “not enough to truly break the dopamine feedback loop these kids are exposed to, and inundated with constantly,” Beddard said.
Since PA Unplugged began advocating for a bell-to-bell ban a year ago, “the landscape has changed so much,” including more states moving to restrict phones, Beddard said.
In Pennsylvania, the state’s largest teachers’ union came out in favor of a ban, and legislation that would require school districts to adopt bell-to-bell cell phone policies was unanimously approved in December by the Senate Education Committee. The bill would grant exceptions for students with special needs.
The Pennsylvania State Education Association “supports legislation like Senate Bill 1014 that would establish a consistent, statewide expectation that public schools will restrict the possession and prohibit use of mobile devices for all students during the school day,” said spokesperson Chris Lilienthal.
“Think about how disruptive those notifications are during the course of the school day when students should be focused on learning,” Lilienthal said.
In a divided Harrisburg, the proposal has bipartisan support. Beddard called banning cell phones in schools “maybe one of the few bipartisan issues left.”
In the Philadelphia area, groups of parents have mobilized against cell phone use, circulating pledges such as a commitment to not give children phones before eighth grade. Delco Unplugged, an offshoot of PA Unplugged, has advocated for cell phone bans in school districts and encourages parents to not give children access to phones before high school.
There has been opposition to strict bans, including from school leaders who think kids need to learn how to live with technology, rather than avoid it. Some administrators have also questioned the logistics, and some parents say they want their children to have phones in the case of emergencies, like a school shooting.
Advocates like Beddard say kids are safer during emergencies if they pay attention to the adults in their school, rather than their phones. They also argue that the logistics aren’t so daunting and that there are many ways to enact a ban besides lockable pouches.
Some schools require kids to put their phones in a locker or simply keep them in their backpacks, Beddard said, noting that the legislation advancing in Harrisburg would allow districts to decide how to enact a ban.
Schools that have implemented bans “describe the experience as transformational,” going beyond academic improvements to better socializing among kids, Beddard said. “Awkward conversations in the lunchroom make you a better human being,” she said.
At this point, “Pennsylvania isn’t a pioneer on the issue,” Beddard said. “We need to get with the program.”
He walked toward the cellblock in Riverside Correctional Facility, pulling a cart of books behind him.
For a moment, it was quiet. The only sounds that echoed off the jail’s cinder block walls were the squeaks of his cart’s wheels.
But as a heavy door to a busy unit swung open, Seth Williams’ work was set to begin.
“Chaplain up!” one of the inmates inside yelled.
Williams smiled at the crowd of prisoners who began walking toward him and his squeaky cart, which was filled with Bibles, Qurans, and other religious texts.
“Step into my office,” he said, placing his hand on an inmate’s shoulder.
The role’s expectations are modest. He offers spiritual counseling and religious programming to the 600 or so prisoners held at Riverside. It is part-time and pays about $21 per hour.
Still, for Williams, the position was uniquely appealing. After putting people in jail as the city’s top prosecutor, then spending five years in federal prison as an inmate himself, he believes he can use what he learned from that journey to help young men avoid committing crimes in the future.
“I can be a better advocate, a better vessel, to help prevent crime and reduce recidivism … by helping people learn the skills they need to keep jobs and de-escalate conflict,” Williams said. “The best use of my experience … is helping people who are incarcerated the way I was.”
Williams believes his efforts now can help reduce recidivism among young men in jail.
It is a long way from the halls of power that Williams once inhabited as the city’s first Black district attorney — and from his standing as a politician who was viewed as a possible future mayor.
Still, Williams says, he is fulfilled by this more humble form of service. And becoming chaplain is not the only role he has taken up behind bars: For the last two years, he has also volunteered at Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility, teaching weekly classes on career preparedness and poetry, and at State Correctional Institute Phoenix, where he directs a volunteer program about Christianity.
Last month, Williams agreed to allow an Inquirer reporter to join him inside the city’s jails as he counseled inmates. He shared stories about his time in prison, delivered socks and toothpaste to indigent inmates, gathered a group to recite the rosary, and gave books to men who expressed interest in spiritual counseling.
He was energetic, open, and passionate. He spoke openly about his past misdeeds, but remained defiant about his federal prosecution — saying he was wrong for not reporting gifts he received as DA, but insisting that he did not sell his office to his benefactors, as the U.S. Attorney’s Office alleged.
Williams acknowledged that his path to becoming a jailhouse chaplain and volunteer has been unusual. He pointed out, for instance, that the room where he teaches his Career Keepers course is just down the hall from the jail’s print shop — which once printed the DA’s letterhead with his name at the top.
Prisons Commissioner Michael Resnick said Williams’ transformation is one of the key attributes he brings to the job.
“He just has a passion for this work, to get people on the right path,” Resnick said.
And Williams said he feels as if he is doing more to help people now than he ever has.
“What if the worst thing that happens in your life,” he said, “could be used for good?”
From rising star to ‘criminal’
To understand where Williams is now, it helps to recall where he came from.
After he was elected district attorney in 2009, Williams, then 42, promised to reform the office where he had spent a decade working as a line prosecutor. He said he would assign lawyers to handle cases by neighborhood, place greater emphasis on charging crimes correctly at the outset, and divert minor offenses into community-based treatment programs.
His policy positions were part of his appeal, but he also leaned into a compelling personal story: Abandoned in an orphanage at birth, Williams was adopted at age 2 and raised in Cobbs Creek. He went on to graduate from Central High School, Pennsylvania State University, and Georgetown University’s law school before returning to his hometown to work as an assistant district attorney.
When he ran to become the city’s top prosecutor in 2009 — his second attempt after a narrow loss four years earlier — he had a campaign slogan that matched his aspirations: “A new day, a new D.A.”
Williams thanks supporters after winning the Democratic primary for district attorney in 2009.
And for a while, some political observers said, he was living up to that mantra. In addition to engineering an ambitious restructuring of the office, he made headlines during his first term by charging West Philadelphia doctor Kermit Gosnell with killing babies during illegal late-term abortions, and by charging Msgr. William Lynn, a top official in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, with shielding sexually abusive Catholic priests.
Charismatic and camera-friendly, Williams was easily reelected to a second term in 2013, and homicides began falling to their lowest levels in decades. Some began wondering if he might leverage his success as DA into a run for City Hall.
Williams and then-Mayor Michael Nutter at a press conference in 2010.
Beneath the surface, though, challenges in Williams’ personal life began to mount.
He now admits he was also drinking too much, “numbing myself from the daily trauma with too much Jack Daniel’s and martinis and Yuenglings.”
By 2015, the FBI was investigating whether he had been misusing campaign funds to live beyond his means. And two years after that, he was indicted on charges of wire fraud, honest services fraud, and bribery-related crimes.
Federal prosecutors said he not only misspent political money but also sold the influence of his office to wealthy allies who showered him with vacations, clothing, and a used Jaguar convertible.
Williams outside of federal court, where he was charged with bribery and related crimes.
Williams insisted he was not guilty and took his case to trial. But midway through the proceedings, he accepted an offer from prosecutors to plead guilty to a single count of violating the Travel Act.
U.S. District Judge Paul Diamond showed no mercy — jailing Williams immediately, then imposing a five-year prison term, the maximum allowed by law. The judge called Williams a “criminal” who surrounded himself with “parasites” and “fed his face at the trough” of public money.
A mentor in solitary
During the first five months of Williams’ incarceration, he was held in solitary confinement at Philadelphia’s Federal Detention Center. That was intended to protect him — former law enforcement officers can become targets behind bars — but it left him confined to a cell for 23 hours a day.
The Federal Detention Center, at 7th and Arch Streets.
Beyond the once-monthly 15-minute phone call he was allowed to make to his daughters, Williams said, there was one thing that helped him endure isolation: Friar Ben Regotti.
Regotti, then a resident at Center City’s St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church, served as the detention center’s chaplain. And when Williams was in solitary, he said, Regotti came to his cell every day and offered an escape: praying with him through a slit in the thick steel door, hearing his confession, and offering him books, including the Bible, which Williams — who was raised Catholic — said he finally read cover-to-cover for the first time.
“I’d lost everything,” Williams recalled. “But Father Regotti was the kindest person to me.”
When he was transferred to a prison camp in Morgantown, W.Va., Williams continued his spiritual journey by attending weekly Masses, Bible studies, and services for other religions. He also completed substance abuse classes, taught classes to help prisoners get high school diplomas, and learned how to play the saxophone.
He made some unlikely friends while he was locked up, including Michael Vandergrift of Delaware County, who is serving a life sentence plus 20 years for killing a rival drug dealer as part of a hired hit; and Bright Ogodo of Brooklyn, N.Y., who was sentenced to more than six years in prison for running a sophisticated identity-theft ring out of TD Bank branches.
Williams said Ogodo later told him he was considering taking his own life — he had even written a letter to his family, convinced they would be better off without him. But when Ogodo saw that Philadelphia’s former DA was in jail, too, Williams said, Ogodo changed his mind.
“He said, ‘I saw you walking with your head up, and [thought], if you can survive, so shall I,’” Williams said.
Three years ago today, I walked out of prison. My friend Bill, picked me up in Morgantown, WV and drove me home. In many ways being incarcerated was less difficult than Re-Entry. I am grateful for all that I have learned. Thank you God. 🙏🏽 pic.twitter.com/393p8KQXmg
Williams was released from prison in 2020, but said almost no one was willing to help him get back on his feet. Before he was incarcerated, he said, he had visited the governor’s mansion and taken his daughters to the Easter egg roll on the White House lawn. But afterward, few people would even take his calls.
“Nobody would hire me,” he said, describing people’s default position toward him as “the Heisman,” the college football statue with an arm extended to keep opponents away.
So Williams — whose law license was suspended when he was convicted — found work at a Lowe’s Home Improvement store in Havertown, unloading trucks and fulfilling online orders from 7 p.m. until 5:30 a.m.
Most of his coworkers, he said, had also recently been released from prison. And while working, he said, he was “kind of providing pastoral care [to them] daily,” similar to his teaching of GED courses in prison, or participating in Bible studies.
In time, he said, he began developing his ideas about self-improvement into formal programs for nonprofits, providing ways for recently incarcerated people to learn the skills needed to maintain consistent employment — developing a resumé, for instance, but also focusing on topics like conflict de-escalation.
Much of his motivation for doing that work, he said, came from research showing that recidivism is greatly reduced among people who receive substance abuse counseling, career coaching, and regular spiritual practice.
“What all three have in common,” Williams said, “is changing the hearts and minds of people.”
Federal Supervised Release ended Friday. First time at the beach since 2016. First time going outside of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania WITHOUT having to ask for permission since ‘17 made me cry! If you want to know my thoughts on Judge Diamond or federal prosecution ask me pic.twitter.com/pwzb9Qa0IR
In 2023, he ran into Terrell Bagby, then a deputy commissioner in Philadelphia’s jail system, and the two discussed the possibility of bringing Williams’ teachings into the jails. That’s how he ended up bringing his volunteer courses — Career Keepers and Prison Poets — into Curran-Fromhold, the city’s largest jail, he said.
In a recent session of Career Keepers, Williams was at the head of the class as nine prisoners sat at a U-shaped table around the room. They took turns practicing public speaking by delivering updates on the weather, sports, and news, then discussed topics including how to reward positive behavior — rather than linger on bad choices — and how to display gratitude.
In the moments after the prisoners were escorted back to their blocks, Williams said the men he has taught over the years have often been more open and vulnerable than he expected. Some have shared stories about traumatic experiences — such as being shot or sexually abused — and then discussed how those experiences affected their lives.
“I spent all this time trying to get out of prison,” he said, “and then I found myself loving being there, trying to help the inmates themselves.”
Becoming a presence
Inside his spare chaplain’s office at the jail, Williams has a desk, a few shelves, and scores of religious books. He keeps packs of white T-shirts, socks, and toothpaste to put into care packages for prisoners and, before making his rounds, keeps a list of people he wants to see.
His time on the cellblocks can be brief. During his rounds on a recent day, his presence did not always seem to have much of an impact. As he passed through each unit’s main expanse, where dozens of prisoners have cells overlooking a bustling common area, some prisoners were more interested in getting their lunch or hanging out by the phones than in checking out what Williams had to offer.
But other times, during several different stops, Williams sat and prayed with prisoners. And the care packages he hands out have become a frequent request, he said.
He wound down his shift in a room near the law library, reciting the rosary with a half-dozen men who had expressed interest in praying with him.
Williams’ chaplaincy is centered at the Riverside Correctional Facility in Northeast Philadelphia.
Regotti, the chaplain Williams had encountered in solitary, said in an interview that even though they first met while the former DA was behind a thick steel door, Regotti could immediately sense his curiosity, intellect, and desire to better himself.
“Going from feeling absolutely desperate to finding ways to cope, it was kind of a mark of his own personal resilience,” Regotti said. “He really developed into somebody that was in touch with God’s grace.”
Williams said he now aspires to be for people what Regotti was for him — a comforting presence in a dark place, and someone who, he hopes, can help provide guidance that can last well beyond someone’s time in confinement.
“The cheapest way to do that is by spreading the gospel,” he said. “People don’t want you to preach to them. They just want your presence — they want you to be there.”
The hearing centered on the city’s request that the judge order that no more exhibits be removed from the President’s House and that the already-removed exhibits be protected as the effort to return them is litigated.
Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s administration is “fighting” to restore the panels, City Solicitor Renee Garcia told reporters after the hearing.
“I want to be very clear that we want those panels back up, but we also do not want anything else to come down,“ Garcia said.
Judge Cynthia M. Rufe wasn’t ready to issue a ruling after the daylong hearing in the courthouse across the street from the historic site. On Monday, she wants to visit the President’s House and ensure that the removed exhibits being stored in a National Park Service storage facility adjacent to the Constitution Center are not damaged. She asked the federal government to maintain the status quo until she makes her decision.
But with the nation’s 250th anniversary celebration being planned for the site in dispute, Rufe said she would not let the case drag into the spring or summer.
The George W. Bush-appointed judge chastised the attorney representing the government, Assistant U.S. Attorney Gregory in den Berken, for talking out of “both sides of his mouth” and making “dangerous” arguments.
The federal government argued the injunction request was invalid on procedural grounds, and that the removal was lawful because, in den Berken said, “the government gets to choose the message that it wants to convey.”
“That’s horrifying to listen to,” Rufe said. “Sorry. That’s not what we elected anybody for.”
The judge asked the assistant U.S. attorney to imagine Germany removing a monument for the American soldiers who liberated the Nazi concentration camp Dachau in an effort to erase the crimes of the Holocaust. “What are we doing here? Are we speaking truth and justice?” Rufe asked.
In another notable exchange, the judge read Trump’s posts from then-Twitter in 2017 in which he lamented the removal of statutes of confederate leaders.
“Sad to see the history and culture of our great country being ripped apart with the removal of our beautiful statues and monuments,” Trump wrote. “You can’t change history, but you can learn from it.”
Rufe asked the assistant U.S. attorney to reconcile that sentiment with Trump’s directive to remove slavery-related exhibits.
“Is this a desire to change history?” the judge asked.
In den Berken declined to respond or opine on the motivations of the president or decision-makers at the Department of Interior, and returned to procedural arguments.
A three-way collaboration
Friday’s hearing marked the first timethe City of Philadelphia and Trump’s administration have gone head-to-head in court during his second term.
The city sued Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, acting National Park Service Director Jessica Bowron, and their respective agencies Jan. 22 while Park Service employees were dismantling educational exhibits about slavery at the President’s House.
The President’s House, which opened in December 2010, seeks to inform visitors about the horrors of slavery and memorialize the nine people George Washington enslaved there while he resided in Philadelphia during the early years of the United States. All information at the site is historically accurate.
The exhibits were dismantled after increased scrutiny from the Trump administration. Last year, Trump and Burgum issued orders calling for content at national parks that “inappropriately disparage Americans past or living” to be reviewed and potentially removed.
Garcia argued the removal of exhibits violated federal law and an agreement between the federal government and the city, and caused imminent harm.
“The contents of the removed panels are critical context to share the stories of the individuals enslaved at the president’s home and their fight for freedom” Garcia said.
The President’s House exhibition was the results of yearslong collaboration between the city and the federal government that spanned multiple presidential and mayoral administrations, Garcia said. Two former mayoral chiefs of staff testified to the city’s extensive work alongside the National Park Service.
“I could not imagine that anybody would decide, after all that it took, together, and that we always had each others back, that they would over night tear it down,” said Everett Gillison, chief of staff under former Mayor Michael Nutter. “It boggles my imagination.”
Valerie Gay, the city’s chief cultural officer, also testified to the historical importance of the site to Philadelphians and to visitors for the upcoming 250th anniversary celebrations.
All but two of Philadelphia’s 17 City Council members have sponsored a package of legislation aimed at limiting ICE operations in the city, a level of support that could ensure the measures become law even if they are opposed by the mayor.
The 15 cosponsors, confirmed Thursday by a spokesperson for Councilmember Kendra Brooks, indicate a potentially veto-proof majority of lawmakers back the sweeping “ICE Out” effort.
Brooks and Councilmember Rue Landau, the proposal’s authors, on Thursday formally introduced the seven bills in the package, which includes measures that would codify Philly’s “sanctuary city” status, ban U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement from operating on city-owned property, and prohibit employment discrimination on the basis of immigration status.
Landau said that “reaching a majority sends a clear message.”
“Philadelphia stands with our immigrant communities,” she said in a statement. “At a moment when the federal government is using fear and violence as governing strategies, this level of support shows that Council will do everything we can to protect our immigrant neighbors.”
Advocates and protesters call for ICE to get out of Philadelphia, in Center City, January 27, 2026.
The 15 lawmakers on board with Brooks and Landau’s proposal have each cosponsored all seven bills, Brooks’ spokesperson Eric Rosso said. Only Councilmembers Mike Driscoll, a Democrat, and Brian O’Neill, Council’s lone Republican, declined to cosponsor the legislation, he said.
Driscoll, who represents lower Northeast Philadelphia, said in a statement that the shootings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti by federal agents in Minneapolis this month “caused real pain and fear” and “deserve serious attention.”
“Locally, we should aim for immigration policies that are focused, proactive and aimed at practical, long-term solutions that ultimately hold up in court,” he said.
Driscoll said he is open to amended versions of the legislation.
O’Neill, whose district covers much of Northeast Philadelphia, could not immediately be reached for comment.
The developments Thursday prompted Mayor Cherelle L. Parker to make one of her first public comments about President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign, saying in a statement that her administration “understand[s] the public’s fear of the unknown as it relates to federal policy associated with immigration.”
“We have a comprehensive approach to public safety, and we will always be prepared for any emergency, as we have consistently demonstrated and will continue to demonstrate,” Parker said. “I have a great deal of faith in our public safety leaders — our subject matter experts — who I asked to be a part of this team and we’re going to do our best to work in an intergovernmental fashion, along with City Council, to keep every Philadelphian safe.”
Parker said she and her team are reviewing the legislation.
Advocates and protestors call for ICE to get out of Philadelphia, in Center City, January 27, 2026.
The mayor has largely avoided confrontation with Trump’s administration over immigration policy, a strategy some have speculated has helped keep Philadelphia from the National Guard deployments or surges of ICE agents seen in Minneapolis, Chicago, Los Angeles, and elsewhere.
But the popularity of the “ICE Out” package among Council members may force her to wade into the issue. Administration officials will testify when the bills are called up for committee hearings. If they are approved, Parker will have the choice of signing the bills into law, vetoing them, or letting them become law without her signature.
Council bills require nine votes for passage, and 12 votes are needed to override mayoral vetoes. With 15 Council members already signaling their approval for the bills, chances appear strong that the city’s legislative branch has the numbers to override any opposition.
Mayor Cherelle L. Parker has avoided confrontation with the White House on immigration issues.
In a Council speech, Brooks addressed the debate over whether the legislation would draw Trump’s ire.
“Staying silent is not an option when people are being publicly executed in the streets and the federal government is covering up their murders,” Brooks, of the progressive Working Families Party, said. “I want to be clear: ICE is already here. We don’t want a Minneapolis situation, but I reject the claim of those who are pretending we don’t already have a problem.”
Council President Kenyatta Johnson, a centrist Democrat and an ally of Parker, shared a similarview.
“From my perspective, the Trump administration has already been looking at the city,” Johnson told reporters. “Overall, the majority of members of City Council support the legislation, and so we see this legislation being successfully voted out of committee.”
ICE agents have been arresting suspected undocumented immigrants in the city before and during Trump’s tenure, and his administration has canceled grants for the city and educational and medical institutions in Philadelphia. But the city has not seen a mass deployment of ICE agents or federalized troops.
Councilmember Anthony Phillips, also a centrist and Parker ally, represents the 9th District, from which the mayor hails.
“What the ’ICE Out’ legislation ultimately says to Donald Trump,” Phillips said, “is that no matter what you try to do to undermine the health and safety and well-being of Philadelphia citizens, we will stand up to you.”
Johnson suggested potential legal issues could be ironed out through amendments if needed.
“The reality is this: This is a moral issue, right?” he said. “And if there are any legality issues that has to be addressed as a body, we’ll work with our members to address it.”
Next, Johnson will refer the legislation to committee, where members will hold one or more hearings featuring testimony from administration officials, experts, stakeholders, and the public. Council members can also amend the bills in committee.
Kendra Brooks shown here during a press conference at City Hall to announce a package of bills aimed at pushing back against ICE enforcement in Philadelphia, January 27, 2026.
Supporters of the legislation packed Council chambers Thursday morning, and many spoke during public comment, ranging from leaders of advocacy organizations to a former immigration judge to immigrants who tearfully pleaded for Council to pass the package swiftly.
Several Spanish-speaking residents spoke through interpreters; other residents testified on behalf of friends or family members who are undocumented and were fearful to come to City Hall themselves. A school nurse told Council members that her students have asked her what tear gas feels like.
“The traumatic effects of these [ICE] raids on our children and our families and our communities will last for years and generations to come,” said Jeannine Cicco Barker, a South Philadelphia psychologist who said she is the daughter of immigrants. “These times call for bold, brave new measures to protect our community, and you have a chance to do some of that here. Philly urgently needs these protections.”
Ethan Tan, who said he is an immigrant and a father of two, said he is fearful for his family and community.
“To this administration, fear is the point. Alienation is the point. Isolation is the point,” he said. “The ‘ICE Out’ package says to me and immigrants that we may be afraid, but we can show solidarity and resolve anyway.”
City Councilmembers Kendra Brooks and Rue Landau on Thursday plan to formally introduce their “ICE Out” legislative package, which aims to place restrictions on federal immigration enforcement operations in Philadelphia.
The seven bills range from codifying into law Philadelphia’s existing “sanctuary city” policies to a controversial ban on law enforcement officers wearing masks. Almost all of the bills contain exceptions noting that they do not apply if Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents secure judicial warrants for their activities or are acting under superseding federal laws.
It’s likely that several of the bills will face legal questions, such as whether the mask ban is constitutional and whether Council has the authority to enact some of the rules the proposals seek to establish.
After the bills are introduced Thursday, Council President Kenyatta Johnson will refer them to committee. One or more hearings will likely be scheduled in the spring.
At that point, officials from Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s administration, stakeholders, and experts will testify. Lawmakers could then amend the bills and vote on them in committee. If they advance, they would head to the Council floor for a final vote.
In a sign that the bills are likely to gain traction, Majority Leader Katherine Gilmore Richardson on Wednesday praised Brooks’ and Landau’s efforts.
“My heart breaks for everyone who has been impacted by ICE’s violent and dangerous actions and for everyone who feels afraid and unsafe in their communities,” Gilmore Richardson said, adding that she will work with other Council members “to protect our residents.”
If approved on final passage, the bills would head to Parker’s desk. The mayor can veto them, sign them into law, or allow them to become law without her signature.
Here’s what you need to know about each of the bills.
Banning ICE agents from wearing masks
Author: Brooks.
Key excerpt: “A law enforcement officer is guilty of criminal concealment if the law enforcement officer, while performing official duties and interacting with the public …. wears a mask, facial covering, disguise or any other garment that obscures the identity of the law enforcement officer, or fails to identify themselves to a subject of arrest, holding or detention.”
A person looks out of their vehicle as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents walk away, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Richfield, Minn. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)
What it does: The bill would ban law enforcement officers from obscuring their identities with masks. It also would require officers to wear badges, and would make it an offense to conceal badges or to decline to provide identifying information if requested by people they are arresting. Additionally, the bill would ban officers from using unmarked vehicles.
Exceptions: The bill includes exceptions for undercover assignments, medical or religious masks, SWAT teams, and smoke-filtering masks worn during fires or similar emergencies.
How it would be enforced: The district attorney would be able to charge an officer with a summary offense, the lowest level of crime in Pennsylvania. If found guilty, the officer would pay a fine of $300 for each day the law was violated or face up to 90 days in prison.
Additionally, the bill would give any individual “aggrieved by a violation” the right to sue an agent for wearing a mask, with fines up to $2,000 per offense if a judge sides with the plaintiff.
Twist: This bill applies to all law enforcement officers, not just ICE agents. That includes city police. It is likely that the Philadelphia Police Department, which sometimes uses unmarked cars, will have something to say about the proposed rules once the bill gets a committee hearing.
Key excerpt: “No City Agency or Employee shall enter into, renew, or participate in a 287(g) Agreement with the federal government.”
What it does: The primary objective of this bill is to ensure the city never enters into a 287(g) agreement, in which local law enforcement officers are trained to perform immigration enforcement duties. (The agreement refers to a section of the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act.) Philadelphia is not currently in a 287(g) agreement, so that provision would not have a significant impact in the near term.
But the bill includes several other notable provisions, such as prohibiting city employees from assisting immigration enforcement in any way, and requiring them to report requests to assist ICE to their superiors.
How it would be enforced: The city solicitor, Philadelphia’s top lawyer, would be responsible for suing city agencies or employees who violate the bill’s provisions. Potential consequences include a $2,000 fine and termination.
Kendra Brooks shown here during a news conference at City Hall on Tuesday to announce a package of bills aimed at pushing back against ICE enforcement in Philadelphia.
Prohibiting discrimination based on immigration status in city services
Author: Landau.
Key excerpt: “No City agency, official, employee, contractor or subcontractor shall …
“request information about a person’s citizenship or immigration status …
“condition the provision of City benefits, services, or opportunities on a person’s citizenship or immigration status or national origin …
“threaten, coerce, or intimidate a person based on their actual or perceived citizenship or immigration status [or] …
“initiate an investigation or take law enforcement action based on a person’s actual or perceived citizenship or immigration status.”
What it does: This bill aims to protect individuals from being treated differently based on their immigration status when dealing with city government services.
How it would be enforced: The city solicitor or anyone aggrieved by violations of the bill would be able to sue the offending city employee or agency.
Banning employment discrimination based on immigration status
Author: Landau.
Key excerpt:“It shall be an unlawful employment practice to deny or interfere with the employment opportunities of an individual based upon … citizenship or immigration status.”
What it does: The bill would add “citizenship or immigration status” to Philadelphia’s Fair Practices Ordinance, which prohibits employers from discriminating against workers based on characteristics including race, ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation.
How it would be enforced: If the bill is approved, Philadelphians who feel their employers have discriminated against them based on their immigration status will be able to file complaints to the Philadelphia Commission on Human Rights, which adjudicates alleged violations of the Fair Practices Ordinance.
Rue Landau shown here at the Tuesday news conference.
Withholding data on citizenship and immigration status
Author: Landau.
Key excerpt: “No City agency … shall enter into any contractual agreement or arrangement with a federal agency or federal contractor to provide access to any data, database, or dataset where the purpose of such access includes assisting or supporting immigration enforcement operations.”
What it does: This bill aims to prevent the federal government from accessing city data that could help immigration agents determine individuals’ citizenship status.
It also would require the city to produce an annual report tallying federal data requests related to immigration status and any violations of the bill.
How it would be enforced: The city solicitor or any individual aggrieved by violations of the bill would be able to sue the offending city employee or agency.
Prohibiting immigration enforcement on city-owned property
Author: Brooks.
Key excerpt: “It is unlawful to use City-owned or controlled property for the purposes of staging, conducting or assisting federal immigration enforcement activities.”
What it does: The bill prohibits immigration enforcement operations on city-owned land, such as federal agents making arrests in city parks or ICE staging raids on municipally owned parking lots.
The bill also allows city agencies to post signs on municipal property stating: “This property is owned and controlled by the City of Philadelphia. It may not be used for immigration enforcement activities.”
How it would be enforced: The city solicitor may file a lawsuit to ask a judge to order the federal government to cease and desist from using city property.
Advocates and protesters on Tuesday in Center City call for ICE to get out of Philadelphia.
Requiring warrants for nonpublic areas of ‘Safe Community Spaces’
Author: Brooks.
Key excerpt: “No employee or agent engaged in official duties at a Safe Community Place shall have the authority to consent to permitting a law enforcement officer to enter a nonpublic area of the facility … to identify, arrest or otherwise impose a penalty upon a person for purposes of federal immigration enforcement.”
What it does: The bill would effectively require immigration agents to secure judicial warrants to access nonpublic areas in “Safe Community Spaces,” including city-owned or -controlled hospitals, libraries, courthouses, recreation centers, and other city facilities. Currently, agents can access those areas if they get permission.
The proposal also would also require judicial warrants for instances in which law enforcement seeks access to nonpublic areas “to identify or impose civil or criminal liability upon a person” exercising protected rights such as the freedom of speech, assembly, and petitioning.
Lastly, the bill would require city agencies to “identify property that has been, and is likely to be used by, immigration enforcement” and mark it with signage stating: “In nonpublic areas of this property, a judicial warrant is required for law enforcement activities and no voluntary consent may be solicited from any employee.”
How it would be enforced: Only the city solicitor can sue to enforce the bill’s provisions. Such a suit would not be filed against a federal agent. Instead, it would be filed against a staffer at a “Safe Community Space” who gave federal agents permission to access nonpublic areas at the facility.
Staff writers Anna Orso and Jeff Gammage contributed to this article.
The exhibits will remain in the park service’s custody at the center, down the street from the President’s House, pending the outcome of the City of Philadelphia’s federal lawsuit against the Department of Interior and the National Park Service for taking down the exhibits.
But the center said it has no role in storing the exhibits.
“The storage facility [where the exhibits are being kept] is entirely under control and operation of the Park Service,” said a spokesperson for the Constitution Center, adding that the center does not have possession of or access to the space.
Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s administration is seeking an injunction to return the exhibits to the President’s House, which aims to educate visitors on the horrors of slavery and memorializes the nine people George Washington enslaved at the site during the founding of the United States.
Jali Wicker records NPS workers remove interpretive panels at the President’s House site in Independence National Historical Park Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026. More than a dozen educational displays and illustrations about slavery were removed from the site, which serves as a memorial to the nine people George Washington enslaved there during the founding of America.
The location of the removed exhibits was revealed Wednesday in a motion objecting to the city’s injunction. The motion was filed by U.S. attorneys and assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate, representing Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, acting National Park Service Director Jessica Bowron, and their respective agencies.
The legal filing also provides further details into what transpired last Thursday when park service employees removed exhibits about slavery at the President’s House.
Park service employees dismantled the exhibit after Bowron ordered Steve Sims, the park service’s acting regional director, to have workers remove the panels and turn off video displays at the site, according to the filing. Sims said the takedown was carried out the same day that Bowron requested it.
There is also a remaining sign made of wood in a metal structure that was not removed last week because additional tools were needed.
“When and if NPS removes the sign, it will be stored with the other panels,” Sims said in a declaration included in the legal filing.
The footprints embedded in the site and the Memorial Wall featuring the names of the nine people Washington enslaved will stay at the President’s House, he said.
Last year, Burgum and President Donald Trump ordered content at national parks that could “inappropriately disparage Americans past or living” to be reviewed and potentially removed.
In addition to the actions in Philadelphia, the National Park Service has reportedly removed signage about the mistreatment of Native Americans from the Grand Canyon, among other changes implemented under the orders.
Tuesday’s filing previews the Trump administration’s legal argument for a hearing scheduled Friday on Philadelphia’s suit, which could be used in other cases around the country.
The attorneys claim in the filing that this case is “fundamentally a question of Government speech,” and they accuse the city of trying to “censor” the federal government.
“Such interests are especially weighty where, as here, the City effectively seeks to compel the Federal government to engage in speech that it does not wish to convey,” the attorneys wrote.
The city’s suit has received legal backing from Gov. Josh Shapiro and the Avenging the Ancestors Coalition, an advocacy group that helped establish the President’s House in the early 2000s.
The exhibit takedown has been a heartbreak for those who helped develop the site and for Philadelphians who have left artwork memorializing what the site used to be.
In a video posted to social media Tuesday, Parker said that her administration would keep “fighting” to have the panels restored to the site as the city prepares to play a central role in the nation’s 250th anniversary celebrations in July.
“This history is a critical part of our nation’s origins, and it deserves to be seen and heard, not just by the people of Philadelphia, but by every person who comes to Philadelphia from around our nation and the world to see and learn from, especially as we celebrate our Semiquincentennial 250th birthday, I want the world to know you cannot erase our history,” she said.
This story has been updated to include a comment from the National Constitution Center.
District Attorney Larry Krasner on Wednesday announced the formation of a new coalition of progressive prosecutors committed to charging federal agents who violate state laws.
Krasner joined eight other prosecutors from U.S. cities to create the Project for the Fight Against Federal Overreach, a legal fund that local prosecutors can tap if they pursue charges against federal agents.
The move places Krasner at the center of a growing national clash between Democrats and the Trump administration over federal immigration enforcement and whether local law enforcement can — or should — charge federal agents for actions they take while carrying out official duties.
It is also the latest instance in which Krasner, one of the nation’s most prominent progressive prosecutors, has positioned himself as Philadelphia’s most vocal critic of President Donald Trump. He has made opposing the president core to his political identity for a decade, and he said often as he was running for reelection last year that he sees himself as much as a “democracy advocate” as a prosecutor.
Krasner has used provocative rhetoric to describe the president and his allies, often comparing their agenda to World War II-era fascism. During a news conference Tuesday, he said federal immigration-enforcement agencies are made up of “a small bunch of wannabe Nazis.”
The coalition announced Wednesday includes prosecutors from Minneapolis; Tucson, Ariz.; and several cities in Texas and Virginia. It was formed to amass resources after two shootings of U.S. citizens by federal law enforcement officials in Minnesota this month.
Renee Good, 37, was shot and killed in her car by an ICE officer on Jan. 7 as she appeared to attempt to drive away during a confrontation with agents. The FBI said it would not investigate her killing.
People visit a memorial for Alex Pretti at the scene in Minneapolis where the 37-year-old was fatally shot by a U.S. Border Patrol officer.
Then, on Saturday, Alex Pretti, 37, was killed after similarly confronting agents on a Minneapolis street. Video of the shooting, which contradicted federal officials’ accounts, appeared to show Border Patrol agents disarming Pretti, who was carrying a legally owned handgun in a holster. They then shot him multiple times. Federal authorities have attempted to block local law enforcement from investigating the shooting.
Krasner said that, despite Vice President JD Vance’s recent statement that ICE officers had “absolute immunity” — an assertion the Philadelphia DA called “complete nonsense” — prosecutors in FAFO are prepared to bring charges including murder, obstructing the administration of justice, tampering with evidence, assault, and perjury against agents who commit similar acts in their cities.
“There is a sliver of immunity that is not going to save people who disarm a suspect and then repeatedly shoot him in the back from facing criminal charges,” Krasner said during a virtual news conference Wednesday. “There is a sliver of immunity that is not going to save people who are shooting young mothers with no criminal record and no weapon in the side or back of the head when it’s very clear the circumstances didn’t require any of that, that it was not reasonable.”
Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner attends an event at Independence National Historical Park on Dec. 21, 2025.
How will FAFO work?
The coalition has created a website, federaloverreach.org, and is soliciting donations.
Prosecutors who spoke during the news conference said those donations would be toward a legal fund that would allow prosecutors to hire outside litigators, experts, and forensic investigators as they pursue high-profile cases against federal agents.
“This will function as a common fund,” said Ramin Fatehi, the top prosecutor in Norfolk, Va., “where those of us who find ourselves in the tragic but necessary position of having to indict a federal law enforcement officer will be able to bring on the firepower necessary to make sure that the federal government doesn’t roll us simply through greater resources.”
The money raised through the organization will not go to the individual prosecutors or their political campaigns, they said Wednesday.
Scott Goodstein, a spokesperson for the coalition, said the money will be held by a “nonpartisan, nonprofit entity that is to be stood up in the coming days.” He said the prosecutors are “still working through” how the fund will be structured.
Krasner said it would operate similarly to how district attorneys offices receive grant funding for certain initiatives.
Most legal defense funds are nonprofit organizations that can receive tax-deductible donations. Those groups are barred from engaging in certain political activities, such as explicitly endorsing or opposing candidates for office.
Goodstein said the group is also being assisted in its fundraising efforts by Defiance.org, a national clearinghouse for anti-Trump activism. One of that group’s founders is Miles Taylor, a former national security official who, during the first Trump administration, wrote under a pseudonym about being part of the “resistance.”
Demonstrators from No ICE Philly gathered to protests outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, office at 8th and Cherry Streets, on Jan. 20.
‘Who benefits?’
In forming the coalition, Krasner inserted himself into a national controversy that other city leaders have tried to avoid.
His approach is starkly different from that of Mayor Cherelle L. Parker, a centrist Democrat who has largely avoided criticizing Trump. She says she is focused on her own agenda, and has not weighed in on the president’s deportation campaign.
Members of the mayor’s administration say they believe her restraint has kept the city safe. While Philadelphia has policies in place that prohibit local officials from some forms of cooperation with federal immigration enforcement, the Trump administration has not targeted the city with surges of ICE agents as it has in other jurisdictions — such as Chicago and Los Angeles — where Democratic leaders have been more outspoken.
Parker and Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel have at times been frustrated with Krasner’s rhetoric, according to a source familiar with their thinking who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal communications.
Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker and Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel speaking ahead of a July 2024 press conference.
That was especially true this month when Krasner hosted a news conference alongside Sheriff Rochelle Bilal. The pair made national headlines after Krasner threatened to prosecute federal agents — something he has vowed to do several times — and Bilal called ICE a “fake” law enforcement agency.
Bethel later released a statement to distance the Police Department from the Sheriff’s Office, saying Bilal’s deputies do not conduct criminal investigations or direct municipal policing.
The police commissioner recently alluded to Parker’s strategy of avoiding confrontation with the federal government, saying in an interview on the podcast City Cast Philly that the mayor has given the Police Department instruction to “stay focused on the work.”
“It is not trying to, at times, potentially draw folks to the city,” Bethel said. “Who benefits from that? Who benefits when you’re putting out things and trying to… poke the bear?”
As for Krasner’s latest strategy, the DA said he has received “zero indication or communication from the mayor or the police commissioner that they’re in a different place.”
“I feel pretty confident that our mayor and our police commissioner, who are doing a heck of a lot of things right,” he said, “will step up as needed to make sure that this country is not invaded by a bunch of people behaving like the Gestapo.”
In the span of a roughly an hour and a half, years of hard work from a group of artists, architects, historians, attorneys, and writers who helped create the President’s House in the early 2000s were ripped off the walls and hauled into the back of a pickup truck to be dropped off who-knows-where.
This brazen demise of the exhibits,which memorialized the nine people George Washington enslaved at the site, was never supposed to happen, said Troy C. Leonard, partner and principal at the Philadelphia-based Kelly Maiello Architects, who helped design the President’s House almost two decades ago.
“Because the panels were not meant to be removed, they were very violently taken down, you know, ripped from their backgrounds,” Leonard said in an interview Monday.
“I would suspect that they did a lot of damage, physical damage, to the site in taking those panels down,” he added.
Workers remove the displays at the President’s House site in Independence National Historical Park Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026.
Leonard is one of many stakeholders who helped create the President’s House and are now grappling with its sudden removal last week after a monthslong review by President Donald Trump’s administration.
In the early 2000s, the site was developed at Independence National Historical Park as a memorial intended to highlight the horrors of slavery that took place during the founding of a nation based on liberty. It featured numerous educational exhibits. Everything at the site was historically accurate.
“Just sort of slithering onto the site was a very cowardly way of doing it without any mention that it was going to happen, notifying anyone, just coming in and starting to take the panels down,” Leonard said.
It’s all in connection with orders from Trump and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, who called for the review and potential removal of content at national parks that could “inappropriately disparage Americans past or living.”
Independence Park employees were also given talking points that evade visitors’ questions about the site.
At Independence Park, Leonard said he is concerned about the future of the site. After last week’s takedown, the open-air exhibit is now a bunch of blank, faded brick walls. All that is left of the memorial is the site’s original archaeological dig from the 2000s and a wall with the engravings of the names of the nine people Washington enslaved.
The City of Philadelphia has sued Burgum, acting National Park Service Director Jessica Bowron, and their respective agencies to restore the panels. Gov. Josh Shapiro’s office filed an amicus brief in support of the city’s suit Tuesday.
“To leave it the way that it is, I mean, to me, it’s sort of now a memorial to the death of democracy and truth,” Leonard said. “That’s what it is now. It’s sort of just these blank walls that are just sitting there. It’s sort of a ruin, but it’s a pathetic ruin because part of its heart has been ripped out.”
Snow falls at the Presidents House on Sunday, January 25, 2026, after the National Park Service took down slavery exhibits several days earlier.
History is ‘lost and found’
Around two decades ago, more than 1,000 miles away from the Sixth and Market home of the President’s House, a Kansas City-based exhibit design firm crafted the illustrations and graphics seen throughout the site.
All of which were torn down last week.
Gerard Eisterhold, president of the firm, Eisterhold Associates Inc., said in an interview that he got a slew of texts and emails when the exhibits were taken down. He said this incident proves a “thesis” that designers were trying to portray to the public through the President’s House — that history goes through cycles of being lost and then found.
“There were the history of the enslaved that was sort of forgotten for a long, long, long, long time, and that’s a conscious thing that people do. … There’s a heck of a lot more people that are aware of the history of President’s House this week than there was last week,” Eisterhold said.
In fact, there was a sign at the President’s House called “History Lost + Found,” which outlined the juxtaposition of liberty and slavery during the early days of the United States.
“History is not neat,” the History Lost + Found panel at Independence Park read. “It is complicated and messy.”
This panel was one of dozens that were taken down last Thursday. Others were titled “Life Under Slavery” and “The Dirty Business of Slavery.” And there were illustrations of important figures, like Oney Judge, who was enslaved as Martha Washington’s personal maid before she escaped. Hercules Posey, who was enslaved as a cook, also later self-emancipated.
“But here we are. Because how dare we write their names, the nine enslaved Africans at the first American presidential residence. … How dare we encode instructions to the future by writing about the two who escaped?” author Lorene Cary, who helped with storytelling at the President’s House along with documentary filmmaker Louis Massiah, wrote on her Substack last week. “The names are still there, carved into stone.”
National Park Service workers remove the displays at the President’s House site in Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia on Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026.
The creation and display of these panels were the product of collaboration across disciplines, Cary wrote.
“So many people — scholars and passionate non-scholars — worked, argued, met, studied, wrote, agitated, and created art for this unique and necessary American project.”
Leonard said his firm has been working with Michael Coard, attorney and leader of the Avenging the Ancestors Coalition, which has been helping leadefforts to defend the President’s House from the Trump administration. The coalition, through its advocacy, helped shape the President’s House roughly 20 years ago.
If the city wins its lawsuit and the panels are restored, the site will likely needa refurbishment and stakeholders will need to ensure that the panels are still in good condition.
Ted Zellers (right) wears a sandwich board with a replica of one of the removed slavery panels as people visit and protest at the President’s House site in Independence National Historical Park Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026.
Some Philadelphians have floated the idea of moving the displaced panels to another location if the site faced the ire of the Trump administration. But for Leonard, Sixth and Market is the rightful, historically important home for the exhibits.
“The place is equally important,” Leonard said. “It is not complete without being located at that site. So it’s important to the fight to make sure that that memorial is restored at that location. It cannot be relocated.”
Shapiro said in a news release Tuesday that Trump “picked the wrong city and the wrong Commonwealth” when dismantling exhibits at the President’s House.
“Those displays aren’t just signs — they represent our shared history, and if we want to move forward as a nation, we have to be willing to tell the full story of where we came from,” Shapiro said after his office filed an amicus brief in support of a lawsuit from the city seeking torestore the exhibits to the President’s House.
The city filed a suit against the Department of Interior, the National Park Service, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, and acting National Park Service Director Jessica Bowron last week while the exhibits were being dismantled by the Park Service.
“There is no virtue in refusing to acknowledge certain aspects of our history because it is painful to do so,” according to an amicus brief filed by the governor’s counsel Tuesday evening. “The removal of the slavery exhibit from the President’s House undermines this commitment and denies Pennsylvanians and others the opportunity to learn more about a part of our history that cannot be ignored.”
Shapiro’s support comes as stakeholders across the country are voicing their outrage against the Trump administration’s efforts to sanitize United States history.
Mayor Cherelle L. Parker has emphasized the importance of a 2006 cooperative agreement between the city and the federal government.
Parker issued some of her most forceful comments yet against the Trump administration Tuesday night in a video posted to social media, saying that the federal government “breached” this cooperative agreement.
Parker said her administration will continue “fighting” for the panels to be restored.
“This history is a critical part of our nation’s origins, and it deserves to be seen and heard, not just by the people of Philadelphia, but by every person who comes to Philadelphia from around our nation and the world to see and learn from, especially as we celebrate our Semiquincentennial 250th birthday, I want the world to know you cannot erase our history,” Parker said.
“Yes, it is flawed, yes it is imperfect, and yes includes the real life, lived experiences and stories of people who endured a great deal of pain so that America could realize its promise,” she added.
The removal of content from national parks comes after Trump and Burgum issued orders that call for the review and potential removal of content at national parks that “inappropriately disparage Americans past or living.”
In Shapiro’s filing Tuesday, his counsel states that the governor wanted to step in to ensure that important parts of U.S. history are continuing to be told and that he has “a compelling interest in protecting the role of state and local governments within Pennsylvania from the abuses of federal executive power,” such as the Trump administration carrying out the removal without notifying the city.
A hearing on the suit is expected to be held Friday morning.
In her video Tuesday, Parker thanked the governor and other elected officials for their support.
“Philadelphia, we are on the right side of history,” she said.
Staff Writer Abraham Gutman contributed reporting.
