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Public commenters urge expanded heat-relief measures; resident reports suspected ICE activity in South Scranton
Summary
At the July 1 Lackawanna County meeting, public commenters asked officials to declare a publicized heat emergency and expand access to water and cooling centers for people experiencing homelessness; a resident said agents he identified as ICE were seen in a South Scranton neighborhood, a claim commissioners said they had not confirmed.
During public comment at the Lackawanna County commissioners’ meeting on July 1, residents urged the county to do more to protect people from an ongoing heat wave and raised concerns about immigration-enforcement activity in a Scranton neighborhood.
Joan Hod (public commenter) praised the county’s list of cooling centers but asked whether the county could declare a publicized "code red" heat response to push municipalities to activate shelters and provide water and other supports. Hod noted that public libraries — common daytime refuges for people without air conditioning — may be closed for holiday schedules and said more proactive, publicized coordination is needed to help vulnerable residents. County staff replied that the Area Agency on Aging had posted cooling-center locations on the county Facebook page and that refreshments would be available at those sites.
Later in the public-comment period Francis McAle (resident) told commissioners that on Sunday morning "they were roaming around my neighborhood" near South Webster and South Irving and that multiple people had seen agents he identified as ICE. McAle framed his concern as part of a broader moral obligation to protect vulnerable neighbors. A commissioner responded that local officials had not received confirmation that the agents were ICE in the incident McAle described and that a recent operation in Archbald had been a local law-enforcement arrest effort that some residents mistakenly identified as ICE.
The meeting record does not include independent confirmation of federal immigration-enforcement activity in the described incident. Commissioners accepted the public comments, reiterated available cooling-center locations and encouraged residents to use posted resources during the heat wave. No formal county emergency declaration was made at the meeting.
