Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Group protests Devereux plan to house immigrant children
LOWER MERION >> Chants of “Never again means close the camps” rang out at Ashbridge Park as a couple dozen people protested against a plan for Devereux Advanced Behavioral Health to house 42 immigrant children at a location in Devon.
Members of Never Again Action and Juntos also sang, held signs and a banner to protest the plan, which they likened to a concentration camp.
Pele Ingangladen, of Philadel
phia, said his grandfather fled Poland at 16 but the remainder of his grandfather’s family “was taken away, put in camps and murdered” during the Holocaust, so he felt it was his duty to speak out.
“We will not accept concentration campus in the U.S.,” he said. A year after coming to the U.S. his grandfather joined the military to fight in World War II. Growing up he learned the phrase “never again,” and took it to heart.
“Never again meant we would never let anything like the Holocaust happen again. And we know that concentration camps are not the end. We know to stop it befoere it gets as bad as it can get,” he said.
Mo Martin, also of Philadelphia, said as in a religious Jew he welcomes friends and neighbors to his sukkah (temporary hut) during the holiday of Sukkot being celebrated this week. But some of those neighbors are being detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, including one of his wife’s students who was “held in detention for a month.” He was sick with a fever and spent two days in a locked room by himself.
“None of us are fine and safe until all of us are safe,” said Rachel Abbott, also of Philadelphia. Members hold a banner.
She spoke about growing up and learning the history of the Jewish people and “the stories of the millions of Jews across Europe who faced imprisonment, torture, forced labor and death.” She said that she wished she had spoken out sooner.
“Never again means never again for anyone,” she said. “None of us are free and safe until all of us are free and safe. We have seen this before. We know what happens when average people look the other way and chose to weight and see. We refuse to be complicit. we refuse to sit back and wait for change ... Detention camps are right here in our backyards, in the suburbs of Philadelphia. “
Aiden Frank said, “We must be clear the people being detained are not criminals…We will not stand idly by a concentration camp. If we fight, we will win.”
The members then drove over to the Devereux offices in Villanova to protest at the main entrance.
Leah Yaw, senior vice president and chief strategy officer for Devereux, said the protesters are misguided and the program that Devereux plans for its site in Devon, if it gains township approval, will help the immigrant children. The unaccompanied children, ages 5 to 12, would receive specialized therapy for trauma, education, health and nutritional care at the facility until they can be reunited with their family or guardians, said Yaw. Typically, that is within one to four months.
“It’s really so sad and really just very upsetting to hear people say that,” said Yaw. “It’s so deeply untrue. And this is obviously a very, very serious charge to make. We reached out to the organization yesterday and spoke to a member who scheduled this protest and asked to meet with them and give them facts. The work that we are doing could not be further from the claims they’re making. Everything we’re doing is to get kids out of detention centers, into our medical centers and reunited with families as soon as possible.”
Phil Glick, who is Jewish and a member of the Devereux board, said that he had offered to speak with the protesters but was rebuffed. He’s been a volunteer at Devereux for nearly 20 years.
“When I read that press release, I was angered,” Glick said, calling it “a vile mischaracterization of what Devereux does. I’ve seen them working with kids and know the wonderful programs they have.”
The nonprofit is “trying to help these kids and get them out of the detention camps on the border. To compare this program to concentration camps is a terrible mischaracterization of what they do. It’s an awful thing to do to.”
The refugee resettlement program that Devereux is working with through the federal Department of Health and Human Services has been in existence for 50 years, he said.
“This is a group that’s helping solve that program,” said Glick. “It’s exactly the opposite (of the protesters’ contention). It’s going to help hundreds and hundreds of children.”
Yaw said if the protesters wants to change immigration policy they should work to change it through the government and not protest an organization that wants to help the immigrant children.
“We cannot turn our backs on children,” said Yaw. “We can’t a trade a policy objective for the real humanitarian work of saving children.”
Devereux is not working with ICE or the Department of Homeland Security, she pointed out. When they spoke to the protesters “they did not know difference between Homeland Security, ICE and the Department of Health and Human Services and they didn’t’ care. We have never worked with DHS or ICE. We have never run detention centers…that’s not what we do. Devereux provides health care.”