Sanctuary, welcoming — whatever. What we call Philadelphia matters less than what we do to protect immigrants.

Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle L. Parker was a teacher, so she might appreciate this analogy: After talking to Jasmine Rivera, the executive director of the Pennsylvania Immigration Coalition, I thought the mayor might deserve partial credit — graded generously — for avoiding the phrase sanctuary city while still hinting at the concept.

Hey, as the saying goes, even Cs get degrees.

Maybe, I thought, she hasn’t just been playing a losing game of political hide-and-seek with President Donald Trump, who on Tuesday signed an executive order threatening to cut funds to cities that limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities.

Maybe she’d gotten the same language lesson I had.

I’ll admit, I was confused when Council President Kenyatta Johnson corrected me during an Inquirer Editorial Board meeting in March when I asked how immigrants in our city could feel safe under Trump’s escalating attacks while the administration in our sanctuary city had seemed to go limp.

The term is welcoming city, Johnson told me, not sanctuary.

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Say what now? Wasn’t it bad enough that Parker was dodging calls to reaffirm the city’s status? Now we were playing a game of semantics to what — stay off the Orange One’s radar?

Johnson directed my questions and ire to Councilmember Rue Landau, who he said schooled him on the evolving terminology, and who in January held a “Trump preparedness summit” hours before the administration directed federal prosecutors to investigate local officials who do not cooperate with plans for mass deportation. Landau, in turn, pointed me to activists (such as Rivera) who were leading the charge.

Rivera seemed tickled to learn the term was gaining traction when we talked. Yes, she acknowledged that in today’s political climate, it might seem like yet another capitulation, but she made a couple of things clear: The move away from “sanctuary city” rhetoric isn’t new. It’s been building for over a decade.

And precise language matters more than ever — because calling a place a “sanctuary” too often creates a false sense of safety for immigrants who can’t afford to be caught off guard.

“It misinforms,” said Rivera. “Even when we pass those policies locally, it doesn’t stop ICE from knocking on people’s doors, or coming to wherever people happen to be. The term sanctuary city has always been upsetting because people assume it does more than it actually does.”

In Philadelphia, it boils down to this: Local police officers don’t help U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in rounding up, arresting, and removing migrants — at least they’re not supposed to. In April, a Philadelphia police officer escorted a Dominican national out of the city’s criminal courthouse and into the custody of immigration authorities after a judge had dismissed all criminal charges against him. The city courthouse has long been viewed as off-limits for federal immigration enforcement, but that was at least the third time in recent months that ICE agents detained someone outside the courthouse.

Now, more than ever, we need a bold, publicly articulated plan of action from leadership that has so far been missing from the Parker administration.

When asked recently about Trump’s executive order, Parker said the city still operates under the 2016 executive order enacted under her predecessor, Jim Kenney.

But then she busted out in a deflective dance.

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“I promised [the] people of our city that I wouldn’t let anyone or anything get in the way of my commitment to making Philadelphia safer, cleaner, greener with access to economic opportunity for all,” she said.

City Solicitor Renee Garcia said almost exactly that at a January City Council hearing, and added a curious bit about the mayor’s commitment to Philadelphia residents being “for everybody within the city’s borders, whether they are descendants of William Penn or stopping by to see the Liberty Bell.”

I don’t know what to say about that other than, “Huh?”

It’s obscene to ask us to imagine that our friends, neighbors, and loved ones with targets on their backs are feeling “safe” enough to do anything short of hiding and praying, and that includes accessing “economic opportunities” or touring the Liberty Bell.

As I contemplated bell-curving Parker’s muted reaction to Trump’s escalating immigration polices, I thought about a phrase a friend of mine uses often about not “borrowing trouble” by reacting too soon or too aggressively to something that hasn’t yet happened.

While I prefer the direct approach, I can understand the city not wanting to borrow trouble by poking the cruelest administration in modern history. But we should all know by now that no amount of silence or sidestepping will stop Trump and his cult. They are demonizing anyone they deem the “other,” terrorizing and ripping families apart, and shamelessly and unapologetically lying to justify it all.

And we should all know this, too: Eventually, they will come for us.

Philadelphia has traditionally been considered among the strongest of — yes — sanctuary cities, fighting and winning a federal lawsuit over funding, kicking ICE out of a law enforcement database, and directing city employees not to inquire about residents’ immigration status. That will not go unnoticed, not by these bullies.

I’d start by asking Mayor Parker to meet with the immigrant groups — in person — that have been showing up and speaking out. No more sending surrogates or issuing statements. They need the mayor herself in a room, face to face, for an honest, unfiltered conversation about what must be done now — before Trump’s crackdown shifts its focus even more to Philly.

“Bring immigrant leaders in,” Rivera said. “Make them part of the process. We need a clear commitment to defend our people.”

If we really are a “sanctuary,” “welcoming,” “One Philly” (or whatever label we land on), then let’s prove it.