Distant and icy, Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti remains publicly silent about recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol killings in Minneapolis.

Aloof reserve from this Democratic congressional candidate in Pennsylvania’s 8th Congressional District and too-cool-for-her-own-good opportunistic public servant should come as no surprise.

In a 28/22news.com television interview one year ago Cognetti even distanced herself from the noble national sanctuary city movement that helps protect immigrant rights. Sanctuary policies clearly define how local or state government shares information and assistance with ICE or other federal immigration law officers.

“It’s important to note too that Scranton is not a sanctuary city, Lackawanna County is not a sanctuary county so if ICE comes in with lawful warrants, they will execute those warrants,” Cognetti said.

Now the 45-year-old third term mayor refuses to answer any of my questions about ICE. So has Christopher Hughes, a timid one-time rookie newspaper columnist and Cognetti’s City Hall public relations flack. Scranton Police Chief Tom Carroll and Cognetti’s congressional campaign manager Anna Korman also have ignored my questions about how Cognetti’s administration handles ICE requests for information or how she will combat an ICE invasion of the city she is paid to represent.

Cognetti’s abrupt turnaround occurred as soon as I started asking questions about her unwavering support for American-financed Israeli genocide. Die-hard Democratic cheerleader Cognetti embraced former President Joe Biden and other loyalist members of her party as they emboldened the Israeli slaughter in Gaza. A January 22, 2026 article in the Jewish Insider reaffirmed Cognetti’s firm allegiance to Israel and even her desire to visit the tiny authoritarian nation.

I supported Cognetti’s first run for mayor in 2019, writing news columns that encouraged her campaign. She once even privately asked me for advice. I believed her promise to fight corruption and truly expected her to stand on sound principle. But Cognetti devolved to steadfastly advocate cruel and murderous aggression against Palestinian civilians that included men, women and children, bloody carnage deemed genocide by numerous international human rights scholars.

Now Cognetti stands in icy silence as ICE and Border Patrol agents brutalize American men, women and children and run amok across the nation.

In a June 10, 2025 email Scranton Police Chief Tom Carroll said, “ICE operates independently of SPD when they work in Scranton.” Carroll’s statement was in response to my email asking whether the Scranton Police Department assisted ICE in a May 15, 2025 arrest in the South Side of the city.

Law enforcement agents had located Mexican citizen Higinio Mendez-Salazar after his previously having been removed from the United States, according to a press release from the United States Attorney’s Office in the Middle District of Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania State Police assisted in making that arrest, according to the release.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro regularly stresses that state police he commands do not directly assist ICE. Immigrant rights groups accuse the Democrat and coy unannounced presidential candidate of arming ICE by providing ICE with data that endangers lives and human rights, including state police officers using their own discretion when dealing with ICE.

Cognetti will need to depend on Shapiro, his influence and fundraising ability in her bid to unseat Rep. Rob Bresnahan (R-PA). The headline on the Jewish Insider article reads “Paige Cognetti running in Josh Shapiro’s footsteps in key Pa. swing district.”

Chief Carroll did not, however, respond to my follow-up question and June 10, 2025 email about the Scranton ICE arrest in which I asked “Did any SPD officer respond to the scene for any reason?”

Nor did PR flak Hughes respond when I asked in a November 2, 2025 email which I also sent to Carroll, “Has Mayor Paige Cognetti instructed Scranton Police Chief Tom Carroll to order Scranton police officers to cooperate with federal ICE enforcement activities within the city limits?”

I asked, “Do Scranton police cooperate with ICE in any way?  If so, how? Does a written city policy exist that spells out how city police should deal with ICE enforcement in the city? If so, please provide that policy. Have Scranton police officers accompanied or assisted ICE agents on any ICE enforcement action in the city? If so, where and when?”

On December 5, 2025, I wrote in an email to Carroll, “Does the Scranton Police Department maintain a formal written agreement with Homeland Security and/or Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)? If so, will you please email me a copy? If not, what is your informal arrangement? I’m writing immigration columns for The Scranton City News and want to stay up to date.”

In a December 10, 2025 email to Carroll I wrote, “Is there a reason why you’re no longer responding to my press questions? Did Mayor Cognetti instruct you to ignore my questions?”

Carroll did not respond.

I asked PR man Hughes in a January 23, 2026 email if Cognetti had instructed him not to respond to my questions, a copy of which I sent to Cognetti.  Neither Hughes nor Cognetti responded.

In a brief cell phone call congressional campaign manager Anna Korman said she answered my call at an untimely time to talk but at least provided her email. Korman, a George Washington University graduate, has worked in various political positions over the past five years, including the Democratic National Committee, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and the Democratic Party of Georgia.

In a January 26, 2026 email to Korman I asked, “What does Paige think about the latest Minneapolis ICE killing?” In a January 27, 2026 email to Korman I asked, “Does Paige Cognetti support defunding ICE? If so why? If not, why not?”

Korman did not respond to those emails or to seven other emailed questions about Cognetti’s position on ICE and other matters. In one of my last emails to Korman I asked, “Has Mayor Paige Cognetti instructed her police chief Tom Carroll to cooperate with ICE requests for information from the police department? How does Cognetti plan to combat an ICE invasion of the city she represents while she is running for Congress?”

What do Cognetti and her minions fear?

What information are they hiding?

Why am I blackballed as a decades-long state and national award-winning journalist by the mayor of the city to which my paternal grandfather emigrated from Ireland to work underground for 45 years as a coal miner? My grandfather died from Black Lung disease after breathing toxic coal dust the way countless vulnerable immigrants still die a hundred years later from pesticides and other abuses at the hands of brutal corporate bosses and political connivers.

Harvard Business School graduate Paige Cognetti trades in an exclusive marketplace made up of elite politically-connected and privileged insiders. Jewish Insider reported, “Cognetti, who launched her bid last September, has since raised more than $1.1 million, garnering over $640,000 in donations last quarter, her campaign recently announced.”

Cognetti is a favored darling in a clannish, arrogant and vindictive Democratic Party that disrespects truth. Without truth trustworthiness ceases to exist. Without integrity born of honor, no political candidate is worth our votes.

Chameleon Paige Cognetti is not worth our votes.