A crowd of more than 50 community 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 community 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.
The video was recorded by a volunteer member of Juntos’ ICE Watch team, 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 asked about their cooperation with ICE by WHYY, PPD stated that their cooperation follows a 2016 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,” said Erika Guadalupe Nunez, the executive director of Juntos who spoke at the rally.
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’ Community 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 said. “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 11 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.
Austen Parrott said 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 said. “I would expect different. I would expect better.”
Josh Finkelstein, an organizer with Make the Road PA, an immigrants’ rights and community justice group with an office in Philly, said he was encouraged by Friday’s turnout.
“Looking at the crowd here, it’s definitely bringing us together,” Finkelstein said. “We’re going to continue lobbying together, and the City Council, the mayor and our elected officials are really going to have to start taking us seriously.”
Guadalupe Nunez shared that she’s seen the immigrant community recoil from daily activity as ICE arrests continue in Philadelphia and public trust erodes among immigrants.
“People don’t want to call 911, 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 said.
On Wednesday, ICE agents took 14 people into custody at the Super Gigante food market near Norristown. On July 6, 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.