Activists once again protested ICE in Philadelphia. Tuesday morning, demonstrators formed a blockade in front of the garage at the ICE field office in Center City.
The protesters were primarily clergy and faith leaders representing various churches and temples throughout the city.
The protest remained largely peaceful, though there were some tense moments.
Some protesters attempted to block the vehicle exit, but with police assistance, the vehicle was eventually able to get through
In frigid temperatures, protesters stood blocking the exit for more than an hour. They sang songs and called for ICE actions to stop in Philadelphia.
“Everyone in the city of Philadelphia is scared, but particularly our immigrant neighbors who have every right to be here and live the life they deserve to take their kids to school, to go to work,k to love and live with their families,” said Rev. Hannah Capaldi of Unitarian Society of Germantown.
This protest comes after hundreds of people marched through Center City on Martin Luther King Jr. Day and gathered outside at the ICE Philadelphia Field Office.
Organizers of this latest protest told NBC10 they plan to have more demonstrations in the coming weeks.
All of these protests are in the wake of the killing of Renee Good in Minneapolis and the shootings of two civilians in Portland by ICE the very next day.
“While ICE activity in Philadelphia has not yet reached the level of that in Minneapolis, ICE continues to strike fear into the city’s immigrant communities through kidnappings and detentions in and around the courthouses, in neighborhood parks and in business districts,” organizers of the protest wrote in a news release.
Also on Tuesday, students in high school and college across the country participated in a “Free America Walkout” to protest ICE.
NBC10 was there as students marched to the same ICE Philadelphia field office.
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