PITTSBURGH — The problem for the ICE officers entangled with a suspect outside a Pittsburgh police station in the city’s Allentown neighborhood didn’t begin when several city officers allegedly stood down.

Their problem began a handful of miles away, behind a podium, when newly sworn-in Pittsburgh Mayor Corey O’Connor said that his officers wouldn’t cooperate with ICE under any circumstances. It was the same position that his predecessor, Ed Gainey, took before O’Connor defeated his fellow Democrat. Both men campaigned as progressives.