More than three hundred people from across Pennsylvania traveled to Philipsburg Sunday afternoon to protest the Moshannon Valley Processing Center and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which operates the privately-owned facility. Its capacity is 1,876, making it the largest immigration detention facility in the Northeast.
Protesters gathered at Cold Stream Dam on Route 322, which is about ten minutes away from the detention center. Another group of protestors gathered at Philipsburg Memorial Park across from the borough office.
“We're here to call the Clearfield County Commissioners to close the Moshannon Valley Processing Center by ending their contract with ICE,” said Megan Guidi, an organizer with Pittsburgh Women for Democracy.
Guidi said there have been several ACLU lawsuits filed against the facility for poor living conditions, including high rates of solitary confinement.
“We'd like to see people back in their homes, in their communities, working their jobs, living with their families, contributing meaningfully to our society, like they've been doing,” Guidi said.
Many protesters came in on buses from the Pittsburgh and Philadelphia areas, but several were from Philipsburg and central Pennsylvania.
“A lot of people paid for their own ticket, their own bus ticket, to be down here,” said Rose De La Luz, one of the event organizers. She said some people donated money to help pay for the bus tickets.
A speaker at the protest referenced common criticism about such events and whether they are paid protestors. The crowd shouted “no,” with one protester shouting, “I hate Trump for free.”
De La Luz, who is from Norristown, said she has a personal reason to protest the detention facility. She said her cousin has been detained there for almost five months, and she’s been denied access four times when trying to see him. Her most recent attempt was on Saturday, a day before the protest.
“He kept calling me every hour yesterday, just waiting to see how far in line I was to be able to get access to him,” De La Luz said. “And at the end, he called me and was like, ‘Hey, you weren't able to make it.’ I was like, ‘No,’ and I explained to him what had happened. And then he broke and I broke.”
De La Luz said she’s going to keep trying to see her cousin, and that he has an attorney trying to get him released.
“Look around us, you know, we're not alone,” De La Luz said. “We're fighting with a bigger community, and we're happy to have other people, and honestly, white people coming on board with us makes us feel a little bit safer.”
Sunday’s protest follows a smaller demonstration in the State College area on Friday, the same week immigrant rights groups said ICE arrested 26 immigrants on their way to work in Centre County.
The Moshannon Valley Processing Center came under fire earlier this month when a 32-year-old Chinese man died while in ICE custody in the facility. Pennsylvania State Police ruled his death a suicide.
One of President Donald Trump’s main campaign promises was to mass deport illegal immigrants, saying “these are really dangerous people,” when he spoke at a packed rally in State College last year.
Trump won every county in Pennsylvania except Allegheny, Centre, Dauphin, Lackawanna, Lehigh, Montgomery, Chester, Delaware and Philadelphia.
But now a majority of Americans say actions by ICE have “gone too far,” according to a recent PBS News/NPR/Marist poll.
