Activists rally in Philadelphia following ICE arrest outside courthouse

A crowd of more than district organizers and Philly residents gathered outside the Juanita Kidd Stout Center for Criminal Justice on Friday morning for a rally in response to an arrest by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents earlier this week The arrest on Wednesday was conducted by plainclothes ICE agents working who worked with Philadelphia police to detain a man exiting the building A recording of the arrest shared by immigrant advocacy nonprofit Juntos shows ICE agents tackle the neighborhood member to the ground as they exit the courthouse Despite requests from onlookers to identify themselves and provide a warrant at no point in the video do ICE officers do either View this post on Instagram A post shared by Juntos vamos juntos The video was recorded by a volunteer member of Juntos ICE Watch group who are trained to identify and respond to ICE activity In the video Philly police officers do not directly restrain the individual but stand by as ICE makes the arrest When solicited about their cooperation with ICE by WHYY PPD stated that their cooperation follows a executive order from former Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney The executive order outlines the circumstances in which PPD should cooperate with ICE and says that PPD should only comply with ICE detainer requests when supported by a judicial warrant It is unclear whether or not ICE had a warrant for Wednesday s detainment Protest organizers and attendees believe the cooperation between ICE and PPD violates Philadelphia s sanctuary city status We are disappointed in any and all collaboration between local agencies and ICE disappointed in the silence in the lack of coordination and the broken promises of protection explained Erika Guadalupe Nunez the executive director of Juntos who spoke at the rally Erika Guadalupe Nunez the executive director of Juntos led the July rally giving opening remarks and introducing the trio of other speakers Davis Cuffe Billy Penn Guadalupe Nunez was joined in speaking at the Friday protest by Elena Emelchin Brunner an immigrant rights organizer with Asian Americans United and Lenore Ramos an organizer with Juntos as well as the ICE Watch volunteer who witnessed the Wednesday arrest who preferred to remain anonymous Ramos was noticeably choked up during her speech where she described what she has witnessed while acting as Juntos Neighborhood Defense Organizer I sit on one side of a plastic screen unable to offer a hug or even a handshake and I watch as ICE employees bring them in and out of their cages It makes me physically ill every time Ramos announced Over a decade ago Philadelphia declared itself a sanctuary city And yet while we experience the expansion of fascism in our city our city is not standing behind our immigrant communities Instead it s stepping all over them Throughout the speeches which continued to a m members of the crowd held signs declaring ICE out of Philly and Abolish ICE and shouted anti-ICE chants during pauses between speakers Among the a multitude of who waved signs sharing anti-ICE sentiments during the rally was waiting for Crystal to share his name whose sign read Ugly cowards wear masks while supporting doing Nazi things Davis Cuffe Billy Penn Austen Parrott mentioned he was drawn to participate in the protest after watching the video of the arrest which he called appalling It seems like our police department is willing to act right in league with ICE even as they are clearly escalating situations and abusing people Parrott noted I would expect different I would expect better Josh Finkelstein an organizer with Make the Road PA an immigrants rights and area justice group with an office in Philly declared he was encouraged by Friday s turnout Looking at the crowd here it s definitely bringing us together Finkelstein explained We re going to continue lobbying together and the City Council the mayor and our elected officers are really going to have to start taking us seriously Guadalupe Nunez shared that she s seen the immigrant region recoil from daily activity as ICE arrests continue in Philadelphia and residents trust erodes among immigrants People don t want to call they don t want to take the kids to the hospital they don t want to go to work they don t want to go to school Guadalupe Nunez declared On Wednesday ICE agents took people into custody at the Super Gigante food field near Norristown On July ICE detained five undocumented Guatemalan immigrants living in Point Breeze WHYY and Billy Penn reached out to ICE over email but have yet to receive a response The post Activists rally in Philadelphia following ICE arrest outside courthouse appeared first on Billy Penn at WHYY