ICE Protest Pop-Up

Adam Welsh

Erie residents brave the snowstorm to protest recent ICE raids and shootings in Minneapolis.

On Jan. 25 Erie citizens gathered in the snowstorm to protest the ICE raids in Minneapolis, MN as well as the killing of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by ICE officers. As the snow came down in Perry Square, protestors held signs and led chants calling for the impeachment of Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, and President Donald Trump. 

"No hate! No fear! ICE has no business here!" shouted the crowd. A few protestors handed out hot chocolate on the sidewalk. 

"It's just wrong. And to have these people being killed, not just the ones on the street, but all the other people killed in ICE detention or beaten by ICE. It's just wrong," said one protestor.

A protestor named AJ said that his grandmother was Polish-Jewish and was able to escape the Nazis and rebuild her life in England. " I always asked myself when I was a kid: would I have been with the people that were being persecuted? And this is where it starts, so I gotta be out here." 

County Councilmen Rock Copeland and Chris Drexel also attended the protest. Drexel accused the federal government of "letting agents out on the street and kill people," pointing to widely circulated video footage showing federal officers fatally shooting civilians during immigration enforcement operations."This isn't the country that I want it to be so it's time to stand up and get together and make a change. It shouldn't be about political sides anymore."