Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks at PPG Paints Arena, Monday, Nov. 4, 2024, in Uptown. The rally was second to last for his 2024 presidential campaign, followed by a final stop in Grand Rapids, Mich. (Photo by Stephanie Strasburg/PublicSource)
From deportations to abortion access, environmental policy to infrastructure funding, the switch from Biden to Trump could bring big change for Southwestern Pennsylvania.
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Monica Ruiz is bracing for federal immigration authorities to ramp up activity in the Pittsburgh area after Donald Trump is sworn in as the 47th president on Jan. 20. She remembers when Trump was the 45th president, from 2017 to 2021, when she said “hundreds of people were picked up” in the Pittsburgh area, many deported.
“They happened last time here, and I know they will happen again on a larger scale,” Ruiz said of deportations. “He ran on this campaign promise.”
Ruiz is executive director of Casa San Jose, a Beechview-based nonprofit that supports the region’s Latino community, including a booming immigrant population in the south of Pittsburgh.
From immigration to infrastructure to climate policy and abortion access, the Trump administration could bring a flurry of changes when it takes the reins from President Joe Biden next week.
Trump promised a “mass deportation” of undocumented immigrants during his campaign, but has not provided complete details of how authorities will carry it out.
Ruiz said despite the uncertainty, Casa San Jose is working to educate community members on their civil rights when approached by Immigration and Customs Enforcement [ICE] officers.
Bold rhetoric on immigration and other issues marked Trump’s campaign through its closing-day rally in Pittsburgh. His cabinet picks have been described as “fierce loyalists.” It’s unclear how rapidly the administration will move on its priorities or in which order.
Here are four ways Pittsburgh residents could see impacts and how some groups are preparing for change.
Immigrants and advocates prepare
Conservative groups including the influential Heritage Foundation have argued that immigration under Biden has been unsustainable, burdening government systems, changing communities and eroding public safety.
It’s unclear exactly how or when the “mass deportation” Trump promised during the campaign will be carried out, or who will be targeted. Trump transition spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said in an email to PublicSource that the operation will involve “illegal criminals, drug dealers and human traffickers.”
“The Latino population that has migrated to my district has been nothing but positive energy, positive for our economy.”
Even before Trump took office, the new Congress sent an early signal of tighter enforcement to come. A bill passed the House with bipartisan support that would require federal detention and deportation of non-U.S. nationals who are arrested for nonviolent crimes like shoplifting. Dozens of Democrats, including Aspinwall Rep. Chris Deluzio, joined all Republicans in passing the bill, and it appears to have the support needed to pass the Senate.
Some local officials are worried about what the new administration’s moves could mean for Pittsburgh neighborhoods that have become home to growing immigrant populations in recent years.
“The Latino population that has migrated to my district has been nothing but positive energy, positive for our economy,” said Anthony Coghill, who represents Beechview on Pittsburgh City Council. “When I hear the president-elect talk about murderers and rapists, perhaps that’s the case in some cities, but I don’t believe it is in my district. I’m hoping we don’t have to worry about a mass deportation in Pittsburgh.”
Dana Gold, the COO of Jewish Family and Community Services Pittsburgh, which resettles refugees and provides social services to people, including many immigrants, in the Pittsburgh area, said the group has been told to expect “big disruptions” to refugee arrivals.
Gold said more than a dozen immigrant and refugee-serving organizations in Pittsburgh came together after Trump was re-elected in November, an unprecedented level of cooperation for the array of organizations.
“What happened in round one [the first Trump term], we were all kind of knocked off our feet and experienced this individually,” Gold said. “This time we are trying to be stronger together.”
The groups are preparing for a “whole new ballgame” compared to the first Trump administration, Gold said. She noted that many of his policies during the first term, such as a ban on immigration from seven majority-Muslim countries, were thwarted by courts or otherwise failed.
“They learned from that and learned other methods of achieving their goals,” Gold said. “We are not dealing with the same administration. … There will be changes on every level. People who may have been allies within the system [during Trump’s first term] may not be in place anymore.”
James Guffey, executive director of the South Hills Interfaith Movement, said while most of his clients are refugees who are in the country legally, many may still be losing sleep over potential ICE sweeps.
“There is that concern that even though those we are serving are here legally, they look different than you and I, and at any point in time, the attempt of being picked up can happen,” Guffey said.
Ruiz said the fear of mass deportations could have a ripple effect on the local economy and the fabric of the community.
“Who’s going to own a home or buy a business when they don’t know if they will be here tomorrow?” Ruiz said. “Parents are afraid of accessing health care for their kids because they don’t know if that can get them deported. I don’t want to live in a community where people are afraid to go outside or advance economically.”
‘Drill, baby, drill’
One of Trump’s campaign slogans was “Drill, baby, drill.” The natural gas industry in Pennsylvania considers his electoral triumph as a win of their own.
“Abundant domestic natural gas embodies American strength, and we’re committed to delivering on this mandate to further our national interests at home and abroad,” said Jim Welty, president of the Marcellus Shale Coalition, in an email to PublicSource.
Representatives of EQT Corp. and Peoples Gas, two Pittsburgh-based gas companies, did not respond to requests for comment.
David Masur, head of the environmental advocacy group PennEnvironment, said the Trump administration could spur an increase in fracking in Pennsylvania by scrapping Biden-era regulations that constrained it. Relatively new rules limiting methane and soot emissions could be on the chopping block as Trump has signaled his intent to slash federal regulations on a variety of industries.
Trump could try to expand the market for liquefied natural gas, Masur said, by lifting curbs on exports and proposing new subsidies.
Masur said his group is also watching for Trump to scrap plans for so-called “green” hydrogen plants, opting for ones instead that rely on natural gas to produce hydrogen.
He also said the federal Environmental Protection Agency could slacken its enforcement against facilities that violate pollution limits. And while Allegheny County’s Health Department, run by local officials, handles enforcement here, decreasing standards in upwind facilities can affect Pittsburgh’s air quality and climate change in general.
Abortion pill access in question
Little changed for Pennsylvanians after the constitutional right to abortion was rescinded by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022. Democrats maintained a grip on state government in the 2022 elections and the state’s abortion law, allowing the procedure up to 24 weeks of pregnancy, remains.
But Jan. 20 will mark the first time since the court’s momentous decision that Republicans will control the levers of federal government, having won both chambers of Congress along with the White House in November.
During his first term, Trump appointed three justices who were key to the majority overturning Roe v. Wade. But during the 2024 campaign, he said he would not favor a national abortion ban and instead wanted the matter left to individual states.
A ban would face long odds in Congress, too, with Republicans holding a razor-thin majority in the House and 52 seats in the Senate, where 60 votes are required to advance most legislation.
Carol Tobias, the president of the anti-abortion group National Right to Life, said she does not expect a national abortion restriction or ban to pass in the foreseeable future, citing Trump’s stated opposition and division among anti-abortion activists and lawmakers over how far it should go.
Tobias said she expects the Trump administration to move quickly to eliminate instances of tax dollars funding abortions, such as by barring the Department of Veterans Affairs from performing them at its hospitals.
Abortion advocates in the Commonwealth are still on edge, though. Adam Hosey, policy director for Planned Parenthood of Pennsylvania, said Trump could move quickly without Congress to restrict the shipment of abortion medication through the mail.
He said Trump could direct the Department of Justice to enforce a law dating to 1873 to prohibit the practice, which would be a significant change, given more than 60% of all abortions in the U.S. are done via medication.
Responding to PublicSource’s questions about the possibility of using executive power to curtail medication abortions, Leavitt said in an email that the president-elect “has long been consistent in supporting the rights of states to make decisions on abortion.”
Tobias said she would at least like Trump to add restrictions for the use of abortion pills, such as requiring doctor visits before and after use.
Infrastructure push could persist
One of Biden’s legislative accomplishments as president was a major infrastructure funding bill in 2022, which allocated hundreds of billions of dollars for roads, bridges and other projects nationwide.
Rich Fitzgerald, the former Allegheny County executive and current head of the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission that oversees infrastructure projects and spending in the region, said he does not expect much to change in the short term.
“The four-year [regional] plan passed last year in June, that’s moving forward,” Fitzgerald said, mentioning work on major Pittsburgh bridges and the Parkway East. The real uncertainty is “going to be in the out years, what kind of funding will be put in place with the new Congress, it remains to be seen.”
Even beyond that plan, he is not necessarily expecting drastic cuts in the future.
“Infrastructure tends to be one of those areas with bipartisan support,” Fitzgerald said. “Bridges are not something that are Democratic or Republican.”
He said funding for public transit, though, could be more vulnerable going forward.
Another of Biden’s signature bills, the Inflation Reduction Act, poured billions into public transit — and some Republicans have signaled a desire to repeal the act.
Charlie Wolfson is PublicSource’s local government reporter. He can be reached at charlie@publicsource.org.
This article first appeared on PublicSource and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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