Norristown immigrants fearful after ICE raids; Montco officials voice support

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Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents barged into Norristown resident Ana’s home Sunday morning, detaining her husband, José, and her brother, Victor. They forced her two teenage nephews at gunpoint to show them their documentation and entered the bedroom where her daughters were sleeping before detaining José and Victor. She said she has been able to communicate indirectly with Victor, but doesn’t know where her husband is now.

Ana, 34, who is not sharing her last name for fear of retaliation, said she doesn’t know how to respond to her daughters, ages 5 and 7, when they ask why the police took their father or when he will return home to play with them.

Sometimes she tells them they just missed him, or that he already went to work.

“¿Por qué papi dejó su phone? ¿Cómo le vamos a hablar?” the oldest daughter asked her. “Why did Daddy leave his phone? How are we going to talk to him?”

Ana said agents had a photo but did not show a signed warrant for José, who had a DUI and was in the Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition, or ARD, program, a pretrial diversion program for first-time, nonviolent offenders.

“It’s very difficult for all of us,” Ana told WHYY News, adding that she knows other neighbors who have been detained, some of whom have legal residency.

José and Victor were among at least 17 people detained by ICE in the past two weeks, said Denisse Agurto, executive director of Unides Para Servir, an immigrant-serving organization in Norristown.

The ICE office in Philadelphia did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A surge in ICE arrests is taking a toll on everyday life for many in Norristown’s Latino and immigrant communities, advocates said. More than 30% of the municipality’s population is Latino, and 17.7% of its residents are foreign-born. 

“Todos tenemos temor de ir a la tienda, de salir, de todo”, dijo Ana.

“We all are afraid to go to the store, to go out, everything,” Ana said. 

Originally from Puebla, Mexico, Ana has lived in Norristown for eight years. She worries what would happen to her two daughters, both U.S. citizens, if ICE detains her.

“No sabemos qué hacer”, dijo ella. 

“We don’t know what to do,” she said.

Officials express solidarity; community members continue calls for a welcoming act

At the board of commissioners meeting Thursday, Montgomery County officials expressed their support for the county’s immigrant residents. Several community members who spoke during the meeting’s public comment section continued to push commissioners to pass a welcoming act.

Commissioner Jamila Winder, who lives in Norristown, and fellow Democratic Commissioner Neil Makhija said in May that they would not seek to sign collaboration agreements with ICE.

“Norristown is a place of resilience and culture,” Winder said Thursday. “It’s a place where many families have come to build a better future. We won’t let fear interrupt that work, because in our community, our beauty is our diversity, and so I want to stand especially with our Latino friends and neighbors that wake up every day with fear of discrimination and persecution, and I just want to continue to show my support for that community in the days ahead.”

Nelly Jiménez-Arévalo, who became the county’s first-ever director of immigrant affairs in February, spoke out against the increased enforcement and fear that immigrant residents are experiencing.

“I have heard from many families who are living in fear, fear of ICE raids, fear of being separated from their loved one, fear of simply being seen,” she said. “This kind of terror has no place in our community. No one, no child, no adult, no human being should ever be afraid to take their child to school, to take them to the doctor, to go to school, to seek help when they need it.”

Jiménez-Arévalo said she is working to expand resources and access for immigrant residents by building infrastructure, improving language access, promoting civic engagement and helping people navigate systems while supporting economic empowerment.

But multiple community members said the county can do more. They want officials to pass a welcoming act and train county employees on how to interact with ICE agents.

“There is no sanctuary. ICE is already working in different cities, so I want to make that distinction clear,” said Julio Rodriguez, political director at Pennsylvania Immigration Coalition.

“This is a welcoming policy which is in full compliance with the law … The county has over 3,000 employees. There is no guarantee that they’re not calling ICE or working with them.”

Commissioner Neil Makhija said the county is working to do everything it can within its legal authority to support immigrant residents, and urged community members to express their views to their representatives in Congress as well.

“We’re not afraid to do what’s best for our residents and if we need to go to court there’s plenty of precedent, as we outlined, in the third circuit that says local governments have the authority not to be commandeered by the federal government essentially, and to do what’s best for our community,” he said. “So you have our commitment that we’re going to continually work on this.”

Makhija said rather than adopt one “model policy,” officials will seek to come up with a “set of solutions” based on community input.

A list of “sanctuary jurisdictions” published by the Department of Homeland Security last week included Montgomery County, along with neighboring Chester, Delaware and Philadelphia counties. The list, which warned jurisdictions to revise their policies to comply with federal immigration law, was removed from the website this week.

All three commissioners, including lone Republican Commissioner Tom DiBello, said the county cooperates with all legal obligations and shouldn’t be included in the list.

Unides Para Servir Norristown and Community For Change are organizing a rally Saturday, “Montco Stands with Immigrants,” from 12-2 p.m. at West Marshall and George streets in Norristown.