Rochelle Bilal, the Philadelphia sheriff, is facing a lot of flak for a fiery press conference where she threatened ICE agents and laid down the gauntlet to President Donald Trump. Addressing the public, Bilal expressed her outrage at the shooting of Renee Good by an ICE agent in Minneapolis. The agent has now been identified as Jonathan Ross.
Bilal, meanwhile, warned ICE agents that the local law enforcement would not tolerate people coming in wearing masks, referring to the masks these federal agents often wear to hide their identities. In a sterner message, she said ‘you don’t want this smoke, because we will bring the smoke to you.’ Bilal also warned agents that they wouldn’t be whisked away, but rather be arrested right then and there if they broke the laws of Philadelphia.
The Philadelphia sheriff also referred to Trump though not by name, saying ‘the criminal in the White House’ would not be able to prevent the arrest of ICE agents if they ran amuck of the state’s laws.
Bilal’s speech, which was shared widely on X, comes at a time when tempers are frayed over Good’s shooting. Many conservative voices on X expressed outrage at the bluntness of her speech. One profile remarked “This is not parody…This is the actual Philadelphia County Sheriff. Is it possible to coexist with someone like this?”.
Who is Rochelle Bilal?
Bilal was sworn in on January 6, 2020, and is the first African-American woman sheriff in the history of the Philadelphia office.
She was in the Philadelphia Police Department for 27 years, and previously served as Secretary of the Philadelphia chapter of the NAACP. When she wore the uniform, Bilal served in units focusing on sex crimes and drug trafficking. She’s also worked on a joint task force with the FBI and DEA>
Bilal a lifelong Philadelphia resident retired from the Philadelphia Police Department in 2013.
She’s also dealt with her set of controversies, including facing calls for her office to be abolished. Bilal, in 2021, faced lawsuits from three senior staffers. They alleged that they lost their jobs in 2020 after they exposed serious wrongdoing, including alleged financial impropriety as well as sexual harassment.