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Immigrant rights advocates gathered across from the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia on Wednesday evening, calling on Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro to end state collaboration with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and expand protections for immigrant residents.

“We want Governor Shapiro to use his executive power to stop state collaboration with ICE and to protect our constitutional rights, including the right to due process,” said Tammy Murphy, public policy and advocacy manager at Make the Road PA. “We feel that it’s a shame that the governor hasn’t spoken publicly about protecting immigrants and protecting our constitutional right to due process, and that puts all of us in danger.”

Advocates’ demands include ending ICE access to state databases; strengthening state troopers’ ICE policy; ending collaboration between the state Department of Corrections and ICE; prohibiting immigration enforcement arrests in state facilities; and never leasing a state facility to ICE.

Organizers also urged the governor to support legislation that would grant driver’s licenses to all residents, including noncitizens. The bill, HB1518, is currently in the state House’s Transportation Committee.

Shapiro’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Blanca Pacheco, co-director of New Sanctuary Movement of Philadelphia, an interfaith immigrant advocacy organization, said people can end up being deported if they are stopped for minor traffic infractions and don’t have a driver’s license.

She wants Shapiro to support the bill, and immigrant communities as a whole.

“Varios gobernadores al nivel del país, alcaldes al nivel del país, legisladores, han hablado fuertemente en apoyo a los inmigrantes, y acá no se ha dicho nada, y eso se sienten las comunidades”, dijo.

“Several governors throughout the country, mayors throughout the country, legislators, have spoken out strongly in support of immigrants, and here they haven’t said anything, and that’s felt by the communities,” she said. 

Pacheco said the increase in ICE raids in the Greater Philadelphia region have taken a toll on immigrants as well as allies who have seen their parents, brothers and fellow church members detained, and have been left feeling “grief and pain all of the time.”

“El oír que … tanto el gobernador Shapiro como la alcalde de la ciudad u otros gobernantes no dicen absolutamente nada aun expande ese sentimiento de duelo y de abandono y de incertidumbre de qué es lo que va a pasar el dia de mañana”, dijo ella, “si las personas salen a trabajar y no regresan, si los niños son dejados en la escuela y regresan y no tienen padres”.

“To hear that … Governor Shapiro and the mayor of the city and other elected officials aren’t saying anything expands that feeling of grief and abandonment and uncertainty about what’s going to happen tomorrow,” she said, “if people leave for work and don’t come back, if children are dropped off at school and come home and don’t have parents.”

Murphy said organizers also want to see Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker speak out in support of immigrant communities amid ongoing ICE raids in the city.

“There is a void of leadership on immigration rights, and people are waiting to hear,” she said. “We have families that are afraid to go to work, afraid to send their kids to school, afraid to go to the grocery store, afraid to go see the doctor.”

Parker did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Make the Road PA, Pennsylvania Immigration Coalition, New Sanctuary Movement of Philadelphia and other organizations organized Wednesday’s rally, which was one of several held across Pennsylvania for a statewide day of action.