‘Brutal’ and ‘cruel’ ICE raid in Lower Providence sparks outrage from Montco elected officials

Local, county and state elected officials gathered in Montgomery County on Tuesday to condemn what they described as a “brutal” and “cruel” raid by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents that took place the day before in Lower Providence Township.

Dr. Jeanine Darby, a township supervisor, said she was at the site of the ICE raid Monday morning outside of a home at Ridge Pike and Lower Barry Avenue, where she saw more than 20 unmarked vehicles, some of which had Uber stickers, and masked ICE agents, as well as some people wearing Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives vests.

She said Lower Providence police were also on the scene “for public safety,” and were not involved in the raid.

According to 6abc, federal agents detained Jose López after a standoff in which López’s cousin, Guadalupe López, was reportedly injured when agents broke down the door of the house and entered while she and her younger brothers, 8 and 13, were there.

The Philadelphia ICE Field Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“What I saw was devastating,” Darby said. “Children crying, a family in shock and a home destroyed after agents broke down the door. No child should feel that kind of fear in their own home.”

A crowd of legal observers and community members gathered on scene Monday, protesting and documenting the agents’ actions.

“The Montco Community Watch network … showed up, put an alert out and residents from all over our community, all over the county, came together to protect, to document and to record,” state Rep. Greg Scott, D-Montgomery, said. “Because we know that if they were not on the front lines recording, the narrative that would have been put out would not have been the reality.”

State Sen. Art Haywood, a Democrat representing parts of Montgomery County and Philadelphia who organized Tuesday’s press conference, said it is important that elected officials “clearly condemn these ICE agents and their behavior.”

“ICE agents, if you can hear me: Do not follow these cruel orders that violate the basic dignity that we all recognize,” he said. “And for all immigrants who are terrified, traumatized by what they see on television and in these neighborhoods: We stand with you.”

ICE activity in the region is not at the scale of the operations seen in Minneapolis, said state Sen. Katie Muth, who represents Lower Providence Township and other parts of Montgomery County, as well as parts of Berks and Chester counties. But she described immigration enforcement agents’ arrests in the area as “an invasion nevertheless.”

“I’ve received phone calls from school teachers whose students get dropped off in the morning and their parents are detained after dropping off their kids at school,” she said. “This has been ongoing since the Trump administration has taken office, and I think that Project 2025 was very clear in its intentions, and we are living … the reality of that nightmare right now.”

Muth said ICE agents’ tactics should be a concern to all people, citizens and noncitizens alike.

“If you think that this can’t happen to you, you’re wrong,” she said. “If you allow this kind of unlawful behavior without due process to happen to one person, it can happen to anyone.”

Immigration enforcement agents also behaved in an “unlawful and inhumane” manner during another ICE raid last week in Phoenixville, Muth said.

In congressional testimony Tuesday about the shooting deaths of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis by federal agents, Todd Lyons, ICE director, defended his agency’s officers.

“Let me send a message to anyone who thinks they can intimidate us. You will fail,” Lyons said.

Montgomery County Commissioner Neil Makhija condemned the masks ICE agents commonly use.

“We have police officers, we have sheriffs, we have detectives, we have EMS, officials, all working to keep our community safe,” he said. “None of these law enforcement officials wear masks … All of these law enforcement agents do the work they do in a way that is respectful, in a way that is committed to upholding the rights of every citizen, and in a way that they aren’t afraid to show who they are and what they represent.”

Makhija also joined other elected officials in expressing concern over the Trump administration’s recent purchase of a warehouse in nearby Berks County to use as an ICE detention center.

“A warehouse is a place where you store objects, not human beings,” he said. “We have to work to make sure that there is never a facility like that in Montgomery County, because we know what happens. We’ve heard about the detention centers across the commonwealth, how individuals are treated, how there are deaths occurring in these facilities because of the negligence and lack of care to those who are being detained, some of whom may have legal status but have not seen their day in court in order to assert their rights.”

Haywood said he is hosting a nonviolent resistance training Wednesday at 6 p.m. at First United Methodist Church of Germantown in Philadelphia.

“We’ve got to prepare our communities to the extent that we can for the escalation that happened yesterday here and that is threatened throughout the nation,” he said.