U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick is backing the Trump administration and pushing Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey to fall in line with stronger immigration enforcement.

The freshman senator responded to Gainey’s pronouncement at the PA Press Club luncheon on Monday that his administration “will not be working with ICE” and “will do whatever is necessary to make our city more welcome. That’s what we’re built on.”

Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey needs to follow the law and the lead of some other Democratic mayors who are working with law enforcement to keep our cities safe. Mayors will no longer get a pass for taking the law into their own hands – President Trump and his team will restore law…

— Senator Dave McCormick (@SenMcCormickPA) January 28, 2025

The impending clash between the Democratic mayor seeking reelection and the newly-elected Republican senator is unfolding amid a growing national battle between locally elected officials in Democratic cities and Republicans in Washington who support the Trump administration’s hardline policies.

The GOP-led House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has called four Democratic mayors – Michelle Wu of Boston, Eric Adams of New York City, Brandon Johnson of Chicago, and Mike Johnson of Denver – to testify over their cities’ “sanctuary” status in February.

McCormick is supportive of Trump’s “decisive action” on immigration.

“President Trump has taken decisive action to secure our border, stop the flow of illegal immigration and deadly fentanyl into our country, and enforce our nation’s laws,” he said in a statement. “I’ve seen this crisis firsthand and will work with the Administration to deliver on these promises.

“This is not just a border state crisis. More than 4,000 Pennsylvanians die each year from fentanyl overdoses, and the influx of illegal immigrants into Pennsylvania communities has put strains on public resources. These actions will end the mass-release of illegal immigrants into our communities, strengthen CBP enforcement at the border, crackdown on sanctuary cities, and restart the wall to make it harder to cross illegally.”

“Pittsburgh not cooperating will not prevent ICE from going in and arresting people within the city limits,” Kristen Schneck, an immigration-based attorney in the city of Pittsburgh told WTAE-TV Tuesday. “What it basically means is that the Pittsburgh Police force will not be actively participating in the arrests or stops.”

With ICE raids ramping up in major cities, Schneck said she has been receiving about 20 to 30 calls daily from prospective, new people panicking.

“(The executive order) made it easier to indefinitely detain people because of criminal charges, but even if they’re later released, they can still be indefinitely detained. A lot of the people, that the stories I’m hearing, are collateral people. They’re not specifically people with criminal charges that are being picked up” Schneck said.