This article is made possible through Spotlight PA’s partnership with NOTUS, a nonpartisan news organization that covers government and politics with the fresh eyes of early career journalists and the expertise of veteran reporters.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said on Thursday that he’s preparing for a potential immigration crackdown if it were to come to his state.
There’s been no indication that President Donald Trump is looking to target Pennsylvania with ramped-up immigration enforcement. But the Democratic governor said that given how many other states have been targets in the Trump administration’s deportation campaign, he’s not leaving anything to chance.
“I’ve also been very clear that we are preparing in the commonwealth, should this come to our doorstep,” Shapiro, a potential 2028 presidential candidate, told reporters at a roundtable hosted by The Christian Science Monitor.
“I’m not going to get into the specifics of what we’re doing, I hope you’ll understand,” Shapiro said. “But I can tell you that we have ratcheted up our preparation should this come, and that is going to involve not just a law enforcement response, but working closely with the community.”
When pressed, Shapiro declined to say whether that preparation was in terms of law enforcement or legal infrastructure, saying his administration is prepared “on every level.”
The governor’s remarks were consistent with how he’s been communicating with stakeholders in the state. For example, in a letter Monday to immigration advocacy groups obtained by NOTUS, the governor’s office outlined the extent to which the state does not collaborate with federal law enforcement and provided know-your-rights guidance for communities concerned about possible encounters with federal agents.
“Now, if the president of the United States seeks to impose his will and the federal will on our commonwealth, there may be some things that we can’t stop,” Shapiro said Thursday. “But I can tell you, we’ve learned from the good example in other states.”
Shapiro said other states’ governors, including Democratic Govs. Gavin Newsom of California and JB Pritzker of Illinois, who have had immigration operations play out in their states, are informing his own preparations. His administration, Shapiro said, has added a federal law enforcement operation to a range of “tabletop exercises” they do to prepare for emergencies.
“What’s the saying? You know, hindsight is 20/20,” Shapiro said. “We have the benefit of a bit of hindsight there. And we’ve been preparing, and I think we have some things that we believe would be, you know, deployed to keep our citizens safe.”
Shapiro criticized the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement operation and said that “the underlying mission” in Minneapolis, where two U.S. citizens were fatally shot by federal agents in separate instances this month, was “compromised.” He has called the broader Minnesota operation a “violation of residents’ constitutional rights” and said it should be terminated.
As a former state attorney general, Shapiro said an investigation is needed so the state of Minnesota can decide whether or not to pursue a case for the killing of Alex Pretti, who was shot by federal agents last weekend. But he believes there could likely be grounds for the state to file charges, emphasizing he has no information beyond what is public.
“I would argue, based on the publicly available evidence, that you could make a very strong case for voluntary manslaughter against the federal official that pulled the trigger multiple times,” Shapiro said. “I think you could make a very strong case for obstruction of justice. That was a crime scene, and that crime scene was compromised when those federal officials refused to secure it … I think you might be able to make out a case for conspiracy if there was a clear directive that that crime scene should be compromised, that you should not participate in an investigation.”