The Rev. Robin Hynicka, pastor of United Methodist Church, wants to know how committed Philadelphia officials are to undocumented immigrants.

Hynicka and several prominent clergy, who see President Donald Trump’s immigration policies as cruel and antithetical to what their faiths dictate, were already worried City Hall was not forcefully speaking out against ICE activity in the city, even as immigrant communities remain on edge amid a surge in rumored and actual arrests.

Then police arrested 15 pro-immigration protesters Tuesday night, including a member and employee of United Methodist, who he says were simply exercising their First Amendment rights.

“We’re worried that there’s been a shift in tone; we don’t know if there’s been a shift,” he said at a news conference Thursday morning. “We want to be assured that you’re with us. We understand that on paper, nothing has changed, but is it real?”

Philadelphia’s official stance is that local law enforcement does not help U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement perform arrests, though the language the city uses to communicate that has quietly changed as lawmakers hope to avoid becoming targets of the Trump administration, which has threatened billions in funding.

Mayor Cherelle L. Parker reiterated Thursday that a 2016 executive order laying out how the city cooperates with ICE remains in place, emphasizing that Philadelphia remains a “welcoming city.” Under the directive, city authorities can honor ICE-issued detainers to hold people in custody only if they are accompanied by a signed judicial warrant.

Still, Parker said it was her job to protect all Philadelphians, regardless of demographic or zip code.

“I have to figure out the best way for me,” she said. “Now, another strategy may work for another mayor in another place, but I am doing the best I can and using the strategy that works for the Parker administration.”

Whether that messaging will satisfy immigrant communities and allies remains to be seen.

Faith leaders in Philadelphia have long acted as advocates for immigrant communities, with several churches, including United Methodist, going so far as to offer physical sanctuary, blocking deportations during the first Trump administration. But that was when federal policy considered immigration arrests at houses of worship off-limits, which Trump ended on his first day back in office.

Now, faith leaders hope they can “affect action” by pressuring elected officials to speak up.

That may be a tricky endeavor, however, as city leaders balance appeasing their pro-immigration constituents without risking federal funding.

Just last month, the Trump administration released a list of so-called sanctuary jurisdictions accused of failing to enforce federal immigration laws. The list, which Trump officials have said they continue to use despite having taken it offline, named 11 Pennsylvania counties and five cities, including Philadelphia.

The list is ultimately what shed light on the Parker administration’s decision to drop the term sanctuary city and adopt welcoming city instead. Her office did not respond to requests for comment.

As the Trump administration escalates immigration enforcement, going beyond the hardened criminals the president vowed to deport while on the campaign trail and now targeting worksites, so has the push from undocumented communities and their allies for lawmakers to publicly condemn the uptick in enforcement.

Norristown has seen more than 20 people taken into custody by ICE in recent weeks; at the end of last month, three employees in a Wayne County restaurant were detained, according to local businesses there. Last week, ICE announced it had arrested four undocumented immigrants working at a manufacturing business in Luzerne County, and ICE confirmed it had arrested 17 people for immigration violations at a building restoration project in Bethlehem on Tuesday.

Those calls, however, have been met with varying degrees of vigor.

City Councilmember Rue Landau and State Sen. Nikil Saval, D-Philadelphia, have been among the loudest voices denouncing ramped-up immigration arrests, peppering their social media with know-your-rights videos and infographics, and condemning Trump’s immigration policies at public events.

District Attorney Larry Krasner has been critical of Trump policies more broadly but repeatedly, as recently as this week, said that while he finds ICE activities distasteful, his role is strictly to prosecute any wrongdoers, whether it is an immigration official who commits a crime while making an arrest or someone who under the guise of protesting chooses to loot a store.

Krasner once again walked that fine line at a separate Thursday news conference, where, accompanied by a different group of faith leaders, he mainly focused on Saturday’s “No Kings” protest, which coincides with Trump’s birthday and is intended to denounce his policies more broadly. Saturday’s protest is expected to draw crowds in the thousands, and the faith leaders who accompanied Krasner urged people to remain peaceful and not let potential agitators get the best of their anger, while Krasner warned potential opportunists or groups like the Proud Boys to stay away.

Regarding Tuesday’s arrests, Kranser struck a complimentary tone toward police, noting most of those arrested at the protests received civil violation notices — essentially tickets that carry no legal penalties. A disorderly conduct and separate aggravated assault case were sent to the district attorney’s office for consideration, but upon further examination, police said the two individuals should not be charged.

“I have to commend them for acting in good faith for being honest workers, for saying, you know, initially we thought that these were crimes, but on closer inspection, looking not only at the evidence we presented you, but the additional evidence you requested, we are asking you to decline these charges,” Krasner said.

While city leaders prepare for Saturday’s protests, which will surely touch on Trump’s immigration policies, Hynicka and his coalition of faith leaders are thinking of what their immigration advocacy looks like long term.

For now, they are calling on the broader public to get involved by attending a July 2 prayer service on the matter at City Hall or supporting immigrant rights groups such as Juntos and the New Sanctuary Movement of Philadelphia.

“There are many ways in which we can engage with the acts of justice and truly become a sanctuary community and city,” said Hynicka, urging elected officials to reaffirm the city’s sanctuary city status and denounce ICE.

The Rev. Mark Kelly Tyler, representing Philly Live Free, which includes police accountability in its advocacy portfolio, took a moment to recall the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. It required law enforcement to arrest those suspected of escaping slavery, even if they had made it to a free state.

Tyler, who is a member and former pastor of Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, said the church’s founder, Bishop Richard Allen, was spared a return to slavery under the federal law only because of his local prominence, but many others were not.

“History now shows us the error of the way,” said Tyler of the onetime federal law. “There’s no one who would ever stand to say that that was right. … So the question is: What will the future say about us?”

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(Staff writer Sean Collins Walsh contributed to this article.)

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