Alexandria Iwanenko is walking back into the Erie County Prison.

The immigration attorney is here to meet with her clients. They are being held on behalf of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“The charge that they have is unlawful entry into the United States,” she said. “Those have not been sustained in any way.”

She’s been busy since President Trump took office. He signed several executive orders related to immigration and deportations.

Iwanenko said ICE and Homeland Security agents were in Erie in late January. They detained multiple people.

Another three people were detained in Edinboro early last week.

Those three had “no criminal charges,” she said. “They weren’t being investigated for anything else. It kind of was - they were at the wrong place at the wrong time.” 

She said another six were detained over the weekend in Erie. 

“There [was] a group of people together and some people were brought into the police station for questioning,” she said.

That means nine people were being held at the prison as of Monday. Since then, multiple people have been transferred to a facility near State College. 

ICE declined our request for an interview. They sent this statement in response:

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement prioritizes public safety over politics. Brave officers are on the streets every day, risking their lives to locate, arrest and remove the most egregious criminal aliens in line with the president’s policy of “worst first.”

As part of its routine, daily operations, ICE arrests aliens who commit crimes and other individuals who have violated our nation’s immigration laws. All aliens in violation of U.S. immigration law, to include those in Erie, Pennsylvania, may be subject to arrest, detention and, if found removable by final order, removal from the United States, regardless of nationality.

Aliens placed into removal proceedings receive their legal due process from federal immigration judges in the immigration courts administered by the Executive Office for Immigration Review, an agency within the Department of Justice which is separate from the Department of Homeland Security and ICE.

Iwanenko has also had trouble getting information like when and where her clients need to be in court.

“Every time I call a government agency or official they transfer me to someone else and then I get transferred to someone else,” she said.

What might’ve been true last week could be different now, she said.

"We just want to make sure people have the most updated information as we as practitioners are trying to figure out the legal landscape as well.”