A Butler County Prison policy was revised to ensure people do not mistakenly assume Butler is a sanctuary county.

Sanctuary cities or counties offer safe haven for illegal immigrants by not cooperating with federal authorities.

President Donald Trump on Jan. 25 signed an executive order to withhold federal funds from sanctuaries.

The county prison board Tuesday unanimously amended the policy’s provisions under Processing, Release and Orientation.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has the ability to issue a detainer for a prisoner without a court order.

The following item listed as C under Procedures was cut: “Unless acting pursuant to a court order or a legitimate law enforcement purpose that is unrelated to the enforcement of a civil immigration law, the Butler County prison shall not permit ICE agents access to prison facilities or to any person in custody for investigative interviews or other investigative purposes or use on-duty time or Butler County Prison resources responding to ICE inquiries or communicating with ICE regarding an inmate’s custody status or release date.”

County solicitor Mike English previously said that provision was mistakenly assumed to mean there would be no cooperation with ICE, but actually meant the prison could not detain anyone without a court order.

English cited a federal court case culminating in a March 4, 2014, ruling by the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia that Lehigh County violated the constitutional rights of an American by holding him past a possible release date due to an ICE detainer.

District Attorney Richard Goldinger, a prison board member, said there have not been any problems with immigration officials.

“We haven’t dealt with this a whole lot,” Goldinger said.

The state Legislature is considering a counterpart to Trump’s order.

Earlier this month, the state Senate passed Bill 10 of 2017 requiring local governments to follow mandates or requests relating to immigration, including detainers.

The bill is under consideration by the state House of Representatives.

English said the county does not have to worry about navigating contradictory regulations — yet.

“You don’t have conflicting state and federal law, (but) you may,” he said.

The board retained the purpose of the policy to comply with the Third Circuit ruling on what happened with Ernesto Galarza.

However, English said if that determination is ever reversed by the court, the policy may need revised again.

“If for some reason, Galarza goes away,” he said.

Along with a reference to the Third Circuit ruling, the provision’s purpose now has the additional sentence: “The Butler County Prison shall enforce each law, mandate, request and order of the federal government relating to immigration, so long as the law, mandate, request or order does not conflict with the rights guaranteed under the Constitution of the United States or the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.”

Galarza was falsely arrested in a November 2008 drug arrest by Allentown police. Although he posted bond the day after his arrest, he was not released.

ICE requested Galarza’s detention based on the erroneous assertion he might have been an illegal immigrant from the Dominican Republic.

The American Civil Liberties Union subsequently sued on Galarza’s behalf.

The court determined ICE can only request, not mandate, someone be detained by a county prison without a court order. Under subsequent settlements, Galarza was paid a total of $145,000.

Confusion about Butler’s status arose after people referred to a report regarding Pennsylvania county policies on immigration detainers that was issued by Temple University Beasley School of Law’s Stephen and Sandra Sheller Center for Social Justice.

In the March 2015 report, Butler County was listed as a county with a written policy stating it does not honor ICE detainers, but did not categorize it as a sanctuary.

In recent weeks, people started contacting the county commissioners office expressing concern that federal funding was in jeopardy.