by Steve Reinbrecht

Wow! So far in 2017, about 20 counties have joined the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement [ICE] agency’s “287(g)” program to cooperate with federal immigration agents.

Although Berks County Sheriff Eric Weaknecht said in March that he wanted to join, our county is not on the latest list.

Berks is home to tens of thousands of Latinos, immigrants of all sorts, and Trump supporters – plus a world-infamous ICE child-detention center -- so you would think our community newspaper, the Reading Eagle, would follow the story.

The idea behind 287(g) is that if people don’t have documents, local deputies would keep them in jail, after they would normally be released, until ICE can show up. 

Although that seems reasonable to some, others criticize the idea. They argue that having local police involved in immigration enforcement will discourage vulnerable people, such as beaten wives and other crime victims, from seeking police help. Others say it violates the Constitution by detaining people without cause.

And some say they are breaking the law and should have their lives torn apart, forgetting that the United States has a proud history of overturning such unreasonable but steadfast laws – like those permitting slavery, or prohibiting women from owning property, or men from having sex with men, or white men from marrying black women, or lately, smoking pot. 

Don’t be afraid to come to work, Berks County mushroom executive tells worker

by Steve Reinbrecht

A Berks County mushroom-farm executive told employees Thursday morning to not be afraid to come to work despite rumors of federal immigration efforts in the area.

The company leader spoke at a meeting at the company’s plant in Muhlenberg Township.

The boss lamented that the company has recently lost three work days – a “day without immigrants” protest Feb. 16, a snow day March 14, and Wednesday.

That’s when many mushroom pickers did not show up because of the rumors of federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement efforts.

One said, “I’d rather miss a day of work than go with ICE.”

The executive told workers that company officials would know beforehand of any immigration raids planned at the farm.

I couldn’t reach company officials, and really, what would they say?

Why would workers be afraid to come to work if they had proper documents?

How will coal comeback affect Berks County?

by Steve Reinbrecht

President Tweet said Tuesday that he is ending the federal government’s war on coal.

What will the revived industry look like in Berks County?

There are no mines in Berks.

1953 Ford Crown Victoria

But they used to burn traincarsful of coal, smack dab in the middle of the county. The Titus Generating Station, a coal-fired power station, started burning coal to turn turbines to produce electricity in 1953.

The 225-megawatt plant in Cumru Township closed in 2014 because of the high cost of keeping it compliant with new environmental regulations, the Reading Eagle reported.

NRG Energy, of Princeton, N.J., owns the 233-acre property, next to the Schuylkill River and railroad tracks.

But despite the president’s call for a revival of the black-gold mineral, NRG Energy has no plans “whatsoever” to resume using coal to make electricity at the Titus Generating station, David Gaier, a spokesman for NRG Energy, told me Thursday.

The plant can still produce electricity with smaller turbines powered by natural gas or oil when called on by the regional grid, Gaier said.

That’s how other power plants in Berks are producing electricity – with oil or gas, not coal.

For example, the Dynegy plant in Ontelaunee Township, powered by natural gas, has a capacity of 567 megawatts, twice Titus' capacity. And a Canadian company, EmberClear, has built a 450-MW natural gas plant in Birdsboro.

In any case, the demise of coal burning at Titus is good for local air quality, especially east of the plant, in the path of prevailing wind.

In 2005, the latest data I could find, Titus belched out 935 tons of particulates smaller than 10 microns, and 818 tons of particulates smaller than 2.5 microns – the really killer nano-grit that gets lodged deep in your lungs. In 2007, the plant emitted 1.2 million tons of carbon dioxide.

President Tweet’s scheme won’t do much for economic development in Pennsylvania.

In 2015, the coal industry employed 6,633 people in Pennsylvania [“includes all employees engaged in production, preparation, processing, development, maintenance, repair shop, or yard work at mining operations, including office workers”].

That was down about 16 percent from 2014, when the industry employed 7,938, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

For comparison, about 125,000 public teachers work in Pennsylvania.

Coal was historically important in the region, especially north of Reading, but production has declined.

In 2000, Pennsylvania produced about 64.8 million metric tons. Schuylkill County, directly north of Berks, produced about 1.1 million tons of that. 

In 2015, Pennsylvania produced 45 million tons, with Schuylkill producing 900,000 tons of that.

Here’s what the president said:

“The miners told me about the attacks on their jobs and their livelihoods.  They told me about the efforts to shut down their mines, their communities, and their very way of life.  I made them this promise:  We will put our miners back to work.  (Applause.)  We've already eliminated a devastating anti-coal regulation -- but that was just the beginning.

“Today, I'm taking bold action to follow through on that promise.  My administration is putting an end to the war on coal.  We're going to have clean coal -- really clean coal.  With today’s executive action, I am taking historic steps to lift the restrictions on American energy, to reverse government intrusion, and to cancel job-killing regulations.”

Why did the Reading Eagle ignore the death of this young woman?

Kaci Kunkel, in the Eagle

Fatal traffic accidents are rare and so terrible that the Reading Eagle should talk to friends and family to find out about the victims, and write stories to remind us of the horrible losses. 

Kudos for the long story -- nearly 1,000 words -- about Kaci Kunkel, who died in a single-car crash last weekend. 

Diohalbit, center, from Facebook

But why did no one follow up on the death of Diohalbit Colon-Lluberez, a woman I knew to be fun and charming. 

Why did the newspaper do no more than publish the police report and photo of the wrecked car for her?

But which buys more ads?

Stories in the Reading Eagle on Friday:

Fleetwood SD hires new schools superintendent: word count 123

Reading Hospital Paws for Wellness program: word count 615

Reading and city agencies are in the real-estate business

by Steve Reinbrecht

Reading, the Reading Redevelopment Authority, and Our City Reading, a development agency formerly run by Albert Boscov, who died last month, own nearly 250 properties among them, mostly residences.

Here is a list, from Berks County records.

The city owns 110 properties.

Our City Reading owns 63 properties.

The redevelopment authority owns 67 properties.

• Do people live in them?
• Are they paying rent?
• How many are vacant?
• How do the city and agencies maintain them?
• When is the last time one was sold?
• Do the city, authority and OCR have a strategic plan for all these properties?

The Reading Eagle could try to find out.

Few non-whites show up in Reading Eagle's Business Weekly

The Reading Eagle’s Business Weekly is full of photos illustrating its stories and ads.

Reflecting Berks’ power structure and its lack of interest in presenting a diverse and welcoming image, only two of the 82 photos where I could judge ethnicity were non-white men, and each was in bank ads on pages 30 and 32.

Four of the photos were non-white women – two the same image of Luvleen Sidhu.

The answer is not to pad the edition with minorities. But does anybody at the Reading Eagle even consider this stuff?

Berks sheriff deputies will get training to assist federal immigration officers

by Steve Reinbrecht

The Berks Sheriff Department will be the first in Pennsylvania to get federal training to help U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement agents detain undocumented immigrants under a program called 287(g).

Berks Sheriff Eric Weaknecht said he knows Berks needs better enforcement because so many undocumented immigrants are processed for felonies in the county booking center.

“Nothing’s being done with them” at the federal level, he said.

The 287(g) program allows a state or local law enforcement entity to enter into a partnership with ICE to receive “delegated authority for immigration enforcement within their jurisdictions.”

Of the 3,141 counties in the United States, 37 have signed up for the 287 (g) program, the latest on Feb.28, and none in Pennsylvania.

Weaknecht applied to the federal training program in 2009, but federal officials withdrew the funding.

Under the Trump administration, he expects funding to become available. Trump signed an executive order on immigration enforcement in January that encourages more local involvement for 287(g) training. Once trained, local officers are authorized to interview, arrest, and detain anybody who may be in violation of immigration laws.

Four deputies will get the 4-week training so that one trained deputy will be available around the clock, Weaknecht said. They will perform their normal duties until ICE officers request assistance, he said.

According to the ICE website, counties in these states are in the cooperative 287(g) program.

Alabama                   Nevada

Arizona                     New Jersey

Arkansas                  North Carolina

California                  Ohio

Florida                      Oklahoma

Georgia                    South Carolina

Maryland                  Texas

Massachusetts          Virginia

I’m not sure if the list is up-to-date. A woman who answered the phone at the ICE PR office didn’t know and told me to send an e-mail to “ICE media.”

Feds should enforce speed limits in Berks County

by Steve Reinbrecht 

Because of the clear danger that surrounds us all, the federal government should hire thousands of law-enforcement officers to crack down everywhere on drivers who exceed the speed limit.

With its self-proclaimed theme of Law and Order, how can the U.S. government – whose No. 1 priority is to keep us safe – continue to ignore the suffering and death caused by speeding drivers?

The National Safety Council estimates that in 2016, as many as 40,000 people died in motor vehicles crashes, many of which must have involved speeding drivers. I cringe from speeding drivers everywhere – and face it – when you see someone in an Audi, BMW, or Camaro, you can be sure they HAVE been speeding, even if they are not speeding now.

Some local police chiefs might oppose visits by federal officers, here to handle things and disrupt their communities. But then it would be time to get new crimefighters who have the gung-ho, compassion-be-damned attitude needed to get these criminals off our roads.

Don’t tell me that most speeding violators go only a bit above the limit and are otherwise overwhelmingly law-abiding. We are a nation based on the rule of law.

The liberal media will complain that my idea would be terribly expensive. They’d claim that properly enforcing the speed limit would expand government and that it would disrupt daily life for millions. And that it would make people in many communities further fear and hate police.

But don’t give me this liberal tripe about mercy for minor transgressors and improving nonsensical laws instead of enforcing them.

I don’t want any drivers who violate the speeding laws to ever feel safe, because newly hired and empowered federal agents could be around any corner. No law-breakers deserve amnesty.

It should be easier to find out about ICE detentions in Berks County

by Steve Reinbrecht

A young man told me that federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers grabbed a friend of his off the street in Reading on Monday and took him to a facility in York.

My friend knows his two brothers as well. The detainee, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, has a baby born here, and has no criminal history, according to my source.

I could not find him on the ICE “detainee tracker” website.

I sent an e-mail to ICE spokesman Adrian Smith, providing the details – the detainee's name, his country and when and where he was nabbed.

Smith called me Thursday. He helped me confirm that I was looking at the proper tracking page. But he said he could not provide information about the incident I was asking about.

He said to make sure I had the proper spelling for the man’s name.

I asked, what if an ICE agent had entered it improperly?

I told him it’s very important for the public to be able to quickly find out about anybody detained or arrested by the government, at any level.

We don’t want people disappearing. That would have been laughable to consider a couple of years ago, but anything seems possible now.

Smith told me he would check and call me back. I didn’t here back by Thursday night.

I also requested, under the federal Freedom of Information Act, a list of everybody ICE has detained in Berks so far.

On the phone, he said he couldn’t give that to me. I hope he sends me a more-formal response to my formal request. 

I find the whole method of getting public information from a government agency shockingly difficult.

I think Smith is trying to do his job within its restraints – he always calls me in response to my queries, in just that doing way more than many public servants have for me on this issue of recent federal immigration activities in Berks [District Attorney John Adams, Reading Mayor Wally Scott, Reading Police Chief Andres Dominguez Jr., and City Council President Jeff Waltman haven't got back to me, if my calls and e-mails are reaching them.]

Reading Eagle ignores Reading, works to normalize Donald Trump

by Steve Reinbrecht

Which presidents have visited Berks County? That's the front page story in the Reading Eagle. The take-away? There is no news in Berks. Oh yeah, fasnachts. And Thon.

Sanctuary city? No mention of the issue in the Eagle.

The City Hall reporter produces about three stories a month, usually covering a meeting, in a city of 90,000 people that has terrible problems with poverty, education and economic development.

But the local "newspaper" ignores the place where the real news is.

On the national level -- let's normalize Donald Trump, just the type of authoritarian, God-spouting, anti-immigrant, anti-education, fear-mongering, media-bashing caudillo to give the Berks Establishment hard-ons.

"Animosity to the president represents an American tradition."

Berks, Reading officials should say: Sanctuary or not?

by Steve Reinbrecht

Is Reading a sanctuary city? Do police in Berks County ever ask people about their residency or immigration status? I've been calling City Hall and the courthouse, but have not heard from the mayor or district attorney. I think it would be good for the community if they went on the record.

The federal government estimates that about 28,000 people in Berks were born in one of dozens of foreign countries.

I’d bet thousands of undocumented immigrants live here.

The idea of sanctuary cities, where local crimefighters do not ask about immigration or hold people for federal immigration agents, has gained attention after President Trump vowed to stop sending federal funds to them.

Supporters of sanctuary cities say that when local police cooperate with immigration officials or ask about residency status, it discourages people from reporting crime or testifying.

Reading is NOT a sanctuary city, City Clerk Linda Kelleher told me in an e-mail, without elaborating.

Mayor Wally Scott and Reading Police Chief Andres Dominguez Jr. did not return my calls.

The Berks Jail does not hold people for federal immigration agents if they have a “detainer,” Warden Janine Quigley told me in an e-mail.

“We do not hold individuals solely for this reason. Sometimes an incarcerated individual with a Berks sentence or Berks charges also has an ICE detainer; however, once the person is released on the local issue, we begin the discharge process.”

County Commissioner Kevin Barnhardt said the county jail hasn’t honored federal immigration detainers for about eight years, under a policy started by former Warden George Wagner.

District Attorney John Adams did not respond to my inquiries.

In 2010, Adams told bctv.org that being in America illegally does not violate local laws.

“Berks District Attorney John Adams said immigration issues are a federal issue and being in America illegally does not violate state law.

"There are actually provisions in the law to protect crime victims who are here illegally," he said.

“[Former] Reading Police Chief William Heim said illegal immigrants who are not wanted for other reasons should not fear reporting crimes to the police.

“The department does not check immigration status, even during traffic stops, because it considers that to be a responsibility of the federal government, he said."

State Sen. David Argall, who represents Southwestern Berks County, wants to punish communities that don’t cooperate with federal immigration agents.

Argall is a co-sponsor of Senate Bill [SB] 10, which would prevent municipalities from obstructing federal efforts to deport illegal immigrants.

“Under this bill, municipalities and counties would be prohibited from authorizing themselves as ‘sanctuary cities’ as a way to hinder federal efforts to prevent illegal immigration,” he wrote in a newsletter last month.

“Combating the issue of sanctuary cities is critical for the safety and welfare of our residents and communities.”

  

Berks County does have a contract with ICE to detain immigrant families.

Argall's article:

Addressing the issue of sanctuary cities

Immigration has certainly been an important issue that has taken the forefront of discussion at both the state and federal levels.

Over the years I have consistently supported legislation concerning illegal immigration and strict enforcement of provisions for employers and individuals who are found to be living and/or working in the United States illegally, and I will continue to do so. 

Senator Reschenthaler (R-Allegheny/Washington) introduced legislation, which I have co-sponsored, addressing the issue of sanctuary cities in Pennsylvania.  “Under this bill, municipalities and counties would be prohibited from authorizing themselves as “sanctuary cities” as a way to hinder federal efforts to prevent illegal immigration. 

Combatting the issue of sanctuary cities is critical for the safety and welfare of our residents and communities.