Luzerne County Councilwoman clarifies details in statement about her brother

Luzerne County Councilwoman Dawn Simmons issued a statement Tuesday clarifying a comment she made about her brother during County Council’s Feb. 10 discussion on a proposed immigration resolution.

The resolution proposed by Councilwoman Denise Williams would have voiced concern about the use of deadly force by federal immigration enforcement officers, and urged the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice to ensure the use of deadly force is subject to “prompt, independent and transparent investigation.”

Council Chairman Jimmy Sabatino did not place the resolution on Tuesday’s council voting agenda, saying he checked with his colleagues and found “no appetite to put this particular resolution on the agenda for a vote.”

In the Feb. 10 discussion, several council members expressed concern that the resolution would draw attention to this area and prompt U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to target immigrants here.

Simmons had said she could verify, from personal experience, that ICE is “already here.”

She spoke of her mechanic’s swift deportation back to Mexico last year and then said the following about her brother: “While not born here, he is naturalized and has a green card and served in the Army for at least two decades, and ICE picked him up and put him in a detention center as a veteran,” Simmons said. “We had to fight tooth and nail to get him out and keep him here.”

Simmons said Tuesday she wants to clarify that her brother’s experience with ICE was neither recent nor local. She said it occurred 10 years ago in New Jersey.

Simmons indicated she was issuing the statement, in part, due to post-meeting questioning about the details of her story on a local radio news talk show.

Her statement:

“Everything I shared during that meeting was grounded in fact. I do want to clarify one point. While I misspoke on the exact timeline of events, that does not change the central and verifiable fact that my brother, a disabled U.S. Army veteran with more than 32 years of honorable service, was detained by ICE. He is 100% disabled. He has served this country for decades, and he was, in fact, detained. Correcting a timeline does not negate that reality, nor does it diminish the seriousness of what occurred.”

Simmons said her brother, Samuel Charles, was attending Tuesday’s meeting remotely.

“He is here in the interest of transparency. But I want to be clear; he is not a public figure. He is a private citizen and a veteran, and attempts to turn his life or service into a political gotcha are inappropriate and unacceptable. If we are going to scrutinize anything, it should be policy and practice, not personal integrity.”

Simmons said her responsibility as an elected official is to “speak truthfully, correct the record when necessary, and remain accountable to the public.”