PHILADELPHIA — In a different jurisdiction, Andrea Lozano-Alanis could have been freed from jail as soon as she paid her $77 bail.

But she was in Montgomery County.

And that Philadelphia suburb holds immigrants wanted by ICE for an additional four hours, allowing time for federal agents to arrive and take them into custody.

That’s what happened to Lozano-Alanis on Friday night, when the 31-year-old undocumented mother was kept in jail even after her bail had been posted, then handed over to ICE agents, according to people familiar with what occurred.

Lozano-Alanis now faces deportation to Mexico.

The sequence of events that led to her ICE detention has angered immigration activists, who say county officials have no right to hold people who have met their legal bail conditions. They point out that jurisdictions in other places have been successfully sued for doing exactly that.

They say they’re upset that a Democratic-led county that continually asserts its support for immigrants — this year establishing and staffing an immigrant-affairs office — actively helps ICE when no law requires it to do so.

Activists push for new policy

For months activists have been pushing county officials to change their policy in a way that might have prevented Lozano-Alanis’ arrest by ICE.

“This is devastating,” said Jasmine Rivera, executive director of the Pennsylvania Immigration Coalition. “It’s why our Montgomery County members have been calling on the county to end their collaboration with ICE. At the end of the day, it was county staff who held her for ICE, and it was county staff who handed her over to ICE.”

Other places follow different procedures.

In Delaware County, officials changed their policy this month amid concerns about due-process rights under an aggressive Trump administration, which has promised to deport millions of people. The county no longer holds people on ICE-issued detainers once the legal reason for their confinement has ended. It will only hold people if ICE presents a judicial warrant signed by a judge for the arrest.

A Chester County spokesperson said the county policy is to release people once there is no legal reason to hold them. They will turn custody over to ICE if agents arrive before an inmate is released.

The Montgomery County policy states that when someone satisfies their bail requirement on the underlying criminal charges, ICE “will be notified that they have four hours to pick up the person, otherwise the person will be released.”

Montgomery County Democratic commissioners Neil Makhija and Jamila Winder, who control the three-member board, offered no comments on the situation when asked. In an op-ed published in The Inquirer last month, the two pledged not to deputize county employees to help ICE.

Montco commissioner supports detention

County Commissioner Tom Dibello, the board’s sole Republican, said Monday that the county appropriately followed its policy in holding Lozano-Alanis. He would oppose jailing someone for several days after they paid bail, he said, but a limited additional hold is reasonable.

“I support honoring a request from federal authorities to hold an individual for a period of time,” Dibello said.

Some county leaders privately acknowledged during the last few days that the policy, in place since 2014, was now likely to face review.

It was not clear on Tuesday where Lozano-Alanis was being held within the ICE detention system. Her name did not surface on the agency detainee locator.

Lozano-Alanis was jailed in Montgomery County on June 3, after an incident in which she allegedly rammed her car into that of a romantic partner outside a Truist bank in East Norriton. The charges against her included child endangerment because her child was inside her car.

She was also accused of recklessly endangering another person, careless and reckless driving, and driving without a license.

Montgomery County spokesperson Megan Alt said she could not comment on details of a specific case. Officials at what is formally the Montgomery County Correctional Facility, or MCCF, followed the policies that have long been in place for people who have a detainer lodged against them by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, she said.

An ICE detainer is an agency-issued request, usually to a jail or police department, to hold someone past the time they would normally be released. ICE says that enables its officers to take hold of immigrants in a safe, controlled environment, rather than face the uncertainty of making a public arrest.

But legal advocates note that ICE requests are simply that — requests. The city of Philadelphia, for instance, refuses to honor ICE detainers unless they are accompanied by a signed judicial warrant.

A risk to taxpayers?

While many law-enforcement agencies in Pennsylvania honor ICE detainers, legal advocates say they do so at risk to taxpayers.

In 2020, for example, Los Angeles County paid a $14 million settlement after their sheriff’s department held more than 18,000 people on detainers.

In Pennsylvania, Lehigh County and Allentown authorities were successfully sued for keeping a man of Puerto Rican descent in prison so that ICE could investigate whether he was legally in the country.

Ernesto Galarza was born in New Jersey, and his settlement cost taxpayers $145,000 in 2014.

ICE officials did not immediately reply to a request for more information on the arrest of Lozano-Alanis.

Pennsylvania immigrant advocates said the incident involving her began to unfold on Friday morning.

A community group, Unides Para Servir Norristown, was contacted for help by Lozano-Alanis’ mother. She knew her daughter had been arrested by East Norriton police, but had no idea where she was jailed.

Supporters learned she was being held at MCCF on $77 bail, and that an ICE detainer had been lodged.

At 4:30 p.m., advocates said, the Montgomery County Commissioners were directly notified about what was occurring. Dozens of people emailed the commissioners asking for Lozano-Alanis’ release. A group of 15 to 20 supporters went to the jail to advocate for her and prepare to drive her home once she was freed.

Bail paid that night

Lozano-Alanis’ bail was paid at about 7:45 p.m., but, activists said, they were told she would not be freed for another four hours and that ICE had been notified of her pending release, as per county policy, they said.

At about 11:30 p.m., supporters who had gathered at MCCF were told by county staff that Lozano-Alanis had been taken by ICE.

“Had she been released to us when bail was paid, she wouldn’t be in ICE custody right now,” said Leo Fernandez of Unides Para Servir Norristown. “Had they passed the ‘welcoming county’ policy when we first asked them to, in February, she wouldn’t be in ICE custody right now.”

For months, as President Donald Trump toughened immigration enforcement, Montgomery County residents and immigration advocates have lobbied the board of commissioners to adopt a “welcoming” ordinance — the first in the suburbs. That would block the county from holding inmates on ICE detainers once they have met bail conditions.

County officials have resisted approving such a policy, arguing they lack the legal power to do so, and saying it could provide a false sense of security to undocumented immigrants. Instead, they said, the county has focused on internal policy changes and supporting its new office of immigrant services.

Montgomery County recently was named on a Trump-administration list of so-called sanctuary jurisdictions, places threatened with loss of federal funding, though county officials have adopted no such policies.

The county’s four-hour-hold policy has remained in place even as a federal appeals court ruled that local governments were not obligated to honor ICE detainers — and that those governments could be liable for wrongful detainment under some circumstances.

Montgomery County Chief Public Defender Christine Lora, who represents Lozano-Alanis on the criminal charges, said the four-hour policy has created complicated and potentially life-altering choices and outcomes for many immigrant clients.

Events moved quickly on Friday night, she said, but there was no question Lozano-Alanis would be held for an additional four hours. That’s county policy, and “they follow it to a ‘T.’”

“It’s egregious and horrible for Andrea,” she said. “It’s egregious and horrible for all our clients.”

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