Lehigh and Bucks counties share borders – and now they share a goal to support immigrants in jeopardy by pushing back.
While Bucks County advocacy groups have been advocating for immigrant rights and stands against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids and round-ups of people suspected of being in the country illegally, a new initiative in the Lehigh Valley aims to call attention to ICE activity at the ground level.
The Lehigh Valley Emergency Response hotline was launched July 12 – and it’s moving beyond phone tips.
Jon Stratton, dean and rector of the Cathedral Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, is an organizer of the Lehigh Valley Emergency Response Network (ERN), which includes a volunteer supported hotline for individuals to report ICE activity in their neighborhoods.
“We took a look at the organizations and individuals who had been working on social justice and community organizing and gathered them together,” Stratton said about the formation of ERN in a recent phone interview. “We didn’t come together and say ‘we need a hotline’ it was more ‘what can we do in this moment in history’ and the hotline came out of that.”
Immigrant rights advocates in Bucks County confirmed there is also an active hotline locally for community members to report ICE activity.
Barbara Simmons, mediator, facilitator and executive board member of NAACP Bucks County Chapter is the former executive director of The Peace Center in Langhorne.
Simmons praised the Lehigh Valley efforts and said the dehumanization of people in the region with brown skin “is a moral injury to our communities.”
“These are our neighbors, colleagues, parishioners, our students – the cruelty with which this is happening and the pace is unacceptable. And a lot of people feel that way,” Simmons said.
She confirmed so far there has not been reported activity of Bucks County Sheriff’s office deputies on the streets acting on behalf of ICE.
Lehigh and Northampton counties do not appear to have ICE 287(g) agreements. While made up of several townships and boroughs the major city center in Lehigh County is Allentown; Bethlehem and Easton are Northampton County’s major city centers.
Law firm Norris McLaughlin said on its website as of the 2020 U.S. Census, Allentown, which is the third largest city in Pennsylvania in terms of its Latino population, now has more than 54% – or more than 68,000 of the city’s residents – identifying as Hispanic. Bethlehem’s Hispanic population has grown over the past decade, too, now making up about 29% of its total population, the report said.
In April, Bucks County Beacon broke the news that Sheriff Fred Harran enlisted Bucks County in the Trump Administration’s nationwide immigrant crackdown and mass deportation efforts by signing up for ICE’s 287(g) “task force model” partnership. Bucks County counts as one of the ballooning number of ICE partnerships with local sheriffs across Pennsylvania, and the country.
Harran applied for and was accepted to have his deputies trained and certified under the ICE 287 (g) program to become “de facto” ICE agents – without the consent of Bucks County Commissioners. In fact, Harran told Philadelphia MAGA radio host Dom Giordano last month that the deputies had completed their training and that his department was already “unofficially” working with ICE, despite a pending lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania and local plaintiffs over the application’s legal status. The next hearing is scheduled for Sept. 16.
Stratton said one of the local participants referenced a model in Colorado and the Lehigh Valley’s local efforts grew from there.
“If you are looking to do a hotline, before you can launch it you need to get a critical mass of volunteers who would be involved. We’ve identified several roles people would play in a rapid response situation,” Stratton said.
Three volunteer training sessions have been held and a fourth is scheduled, he said.
While the planning began in January after Trump was elected, Stratton conceded the raid and arrest at a Southside construction site at the Five 10 Flats Apartments where a fire broke out in May accelerated grassroots efforts. ICE agents detained 17 people at the Five 10 Flats construction site, Lehigh Valley Live reported.
Stratton said there are various ways for concerned citizens to get involved with the ERN network. “Some might come and do legal observing. They might stay on the sidewalks or in areas and watch to make sure no one’s rights are being violated – and record what’s happening” either on an electronic device or with a pen and paper.
“De-escalators might approach an ICE agent and ask what they are doing, or use a megaphone to announce ICE activity on public streets. There is nothing illegal about asking someone if they have a warrant – they may or may not answer you, but that de-escalation is there to be a bit more involved,” Stratton added.
Stratton understands ICE activities can become “tense situations” and those who take an active role are there to “calm the situation down.”
He said the biggest surprise so far has been the sheer number of people showing up to become trained to help – and no one is paid for their advocacy efforts.
“It’s over 150 people so far – which is a lot for an area this size,” Stratton noted.
He said the day after the Five 10 Flats raid a peaceful protest shut down the Fahey Bridge, which crosses the Lehigh River and connects Bethlehem’s Southside to the downtown historic area and the campus of Moravian University.
“We marched across that bridge and shut down the southbound traffic. No one got hurt, that’s one of the great things about this organization. The collective experience of the group is probably at least 100 years,” Stratton said.
“It’s encouraging. People are committed. It takes commitment to build power and make real changes,” he said.
Efforts in Bucks County to support immigrants in local communities are ongoing, Simmons said.
Ahead of a packed Bucks County Commissioners meeting May 12, advocacy leaders held a protest, including NAACP Bucks County Chapter President Andrienne King, and spoke outside the county’s administration building in support of immigrant rights, rule of law and the immediate and broader dangers of ICE 287(g) partnerships with local law enforcement agencies.
“I support the development of a rapid-response hotline and other trusted community-based tools to report and verify ICE activity. These supports can serve as critical lifelines — helping to protect due-process rights, reduce fear-based misinformation and connect impacted individuals with legal and humanitarian resources,” said King.
“This [Trump] administration doesn’t want to honor the law, and they have no qualms separating kids from their parents – we can’t stand for that. This to me is one way of doing that. Working with others who want to be able to say this is not acceptable in my neighborhood,” Simmons added.
