Protest staged at ICE office here
Gathering on South Side to decry immigration policy temporarily closes bridge
More than 100 people gathered Monday outside of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office on the South Side to protest the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy.
The rally, which led to a temporary closure of the Hot Metal Bridge, was organized by immigrants’ rights advocates with Casa San Jose, the Thomas Merton Center, Pittsburgh United and the Pittsburgh Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, as well as the Pennsylvania Interfaith Impact Network.
Bearing signs that said “Kids don’t belong in cages” and “Have you no decency?” protesters demanded that the more than 2,300 children separated from their migrant parents seeking asylum on the U.S.–Mexico border be reunited with their families.
“We’re here today because we want to show the world that this is not the type of treatment we want for our families here in Pittsburgh or across this country,” Monica Ruiz, a community organizer with Casa San Jose, told the crowd gathered in front of 3000 Sidney St.
Last week, President Donald Trump signed an executive order ending the policy that separates parents and children apprehended at the border.
But those gathered Monday said that wasn’t enough.
Fernanda Ruiz, a senior at Penn State and Monica Ruiz’s niece, criticized the president’s choice to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, which gave legal status to people, including Ms. Ruiz, who were brought illegally to the U.S. as young children.
“I have personally felt the constant fear and terror that children all over the country face, that one day they could be taken away from their parent,” she said. “Without DACA protecting us, we are once again at risk of deportation and will lose our ability to work in this country and any sense of security that we once had.”
Hortencia Ortiz, a 19-year-old DACA recipient, spoke
emotionally about the sacrifices her parents made to bring her to the United States so she could escape the poverty they faced in Mexico.
“They’re not criminals, they’re our heroes,” she said.
Monica Ruiz also told protesters that the executive order will not end family detention. She reminded them that that policy has effects close to home.
“This stuff is not just happening at the border; it’s happening here in Pennsylvania,” she said.
Berks County, in the eastern part of the state, is home to one of three family immigration detention facilities operated by ICE in the country.
“Families do not belong in prison. Children do not belong in prison. And until we start to hold people accountable, it’s going to continue to happen,” Ms. Ruiz said. “Our governor, Tom Wolf, has the power to shut it down, and he hasn’t. So maybe your next call should be to Gov. Wolf’s office, to let him know that we don’t want this in our state.”
“Shut down Berks!” the crowd chanted in reply.
Several speakers linked immigration policies that separate children and parents to the death of Antwon Rose II, the unarmed 17year-old who was shot by an East Pittsburgh police officer last week.
“The cries of those children that you heard in those cages are the cries that many of us hear on a daily basis when somebody is being torn out of their father’s arms at 6 o’clock in the morning because ICE comes to take them. It is the cries of a mother whose son has been ripped out of her arms because the police have killed him,” Ms. Ruiz said.
Jamaal Craig, executive director of the Pennsylvania Interfaith Impact Network, said fighting police brutality and immigrant detention go hand in hand.
“We’re not going to stand around anymore and let those in power dictate to us cruel and unusual policies that incarcerate so disproportionately people with brown skin and black skin,” he said. “We’re going to stand up to all of that.”
Summer Lee, a Braddock Democrat who is running for a seat in the state Legislature, encouraged the crowd to push elected officials to make Pennsylvania a sanctuary state.
“The power that those folks think they have is really ours, which means that any time, we can exercise that power to remove those people who do not believe in our humanity, who do not respect our existence and our lives,” she said.
“We’re going to run against them, and we’re going to take those seats back.”
About 2:30 p.m., the crowd began to march down Sidney Street. Around the corner, they stopped on Hot Metal Street and formed a circle, chanting, “The people, united, will never be divided!” and “Not one more deportation!” in English and Spanish.
The rally ended at the corner of Hot Metal and South Water streets, where Ms. Ruiz encouraged protesters to donate to RAICES, a nonprofit organization providing free legal aid to women and children seeking asylum in detention.