Demonstrators began to arrive at Three River Heritage Park in Pittsburgh’s South Side Flats neighborhood late Thursday afternoon.
Around 100 people marched toward the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office at 3000 Sidney Street a few blocks away as part of a national chain of protests titled “Disappeared in America Visual Action,” organized under the Not Above the Law Coalition. According to the organization, the events are meant to “stand up for the rule of law.”
“We’re here for peace, we’re for human rights, we are here for due process, we are here for our country and for the Constitution. We’re not trying to throw stones at anybody,” Julia Whiteker, one of the event organizers, told WESA. “We would love to convince the ICE officers that they’re on the wrong side of history.”
The group began to march around 5:30 p.m., around the same time a thunderstorm began moving through. The group chanted as they made their way to the ICE office, where they set up a couple of speakers and a microphone in front of the building.
“I want to thank you all for being here today, braving the pouring rain, braving the lightning, braving the thunder, for showing up, for standing in truth and for refusing to look away from what happens behind these walls that you see,” said Jaime Martinez, a community activist with the Pittsburgh-based organization Casa San Jose.
Casa San Jose is a nonprofit serving the city’s Latino community and one of the organizing groups for the protest.
In front of a wet crowd, Martinez recounted his experience at an ICE raid on Tepache Mexican Kitchen and Bar on Wednesday where federal agents reportedly arrested 14 people for “immigration violations” while carrying out a search warrant.
“I saw neighbors worried sick, pulling out their phones. I saw people with their eyes shut as tears flowed down their face,” he said. “I saw a fellow human being whose dignity was being violated.”
Martinez repeatedly addressed a group of federal officers who kept their distance from the crowd by the main entrance of the building.
“I believe that you folks are good people. I believe that we are all inherently good at heart. And I believe all of you have a choice … We are not tied to these jobs, to these decisions,” he said to the officers.
One of the stated goals of the protests is to convince local law enforcement not to cooperate with directives to engage in federal immigration enforcement.
Farooq Al-Said, the director of operations for the local activist organization 1Hood Media Academy, also addressed the crowd. Al-Said, himself an immigrant, related that he was once held in an immigrant detention center.
“I can tell you exactly what the conditions are like,” he said. “They’re unhuman, they’re abhorrent, they are evil, they’re discriminatory and they’re predatory.”
Al-Said also addressed federal officers, telling them: “You cannot disappear people. People are not inanimate objects … People are not a magic trick that you can just disappear.”
According to Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, ICE has more than 56,000 people detained as of mid June — 70% don't have criminal records.
“These are neighbors, these are human beings, these are people who are looking for dignity and humanity,” Al-Said said.
