BRIDGEPORT, Pa. (KYW Newsradio) — Immigrant advocates held a protest Thursday evening in Bridgeport, Montgomery County, not far from where Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested 14 people the day before.
ICE officials raided the Super Gigante International Food Market in West Norriton on Wednesday. At least six of the arrestees are Mexican nationals, the consulate in Philadelphia said.
About 50 people demonstrated along DeKalb Street by the Schuylkill River — a protest organized well before the ICE raid. Wednesday’s incident cast even more of a cloud over the Montgomery County immigrant community and their supporters.
Denisse Agurto, executive director of Unides Para Servir Norristown, said there’s a mix of fury, frustration and fear among immigrants.
“My husband gives me a hug and we cry before leaving the home today,” she said, “6:30 in the morning, the kids up, everybody was giving dad a big hug. It’s like goodbye, because you don’t know if they’re coming back this afternoon.”
“I’m the child of immigrants. To see immigrants treated this way, it’s wrong. It’s horrible,” said Pearl Flamberg, who helped organize the protest.
AnnMarie Giaccio said the point of these protests is to show the people being targeted that their community cares.
“I see my neighbors, who go to work every day, who came here for the same reason my grandparents came here — for a better life, for education, for their children. And they’re being vilified, and it’s terrible,” she said.
“They really care about us, so that was important,” Agurto added. “Something good is coming out of this really bad thing.”