Under the looming specter of a surge in Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity around the country, Mark Sewell saw a change in some of his students at Reading High School.
“They live in fear,” Sewell said. “Whether ICE is in the city or not. That’s impacting their education in my classroom.”
Mark Sewell of Reading attended an Immigration and Customs Enforcement protest in Wyomissing Saturday because he knows how the poem by Pastor Martin Niemoller ends. (BILL UHRICH/READING EAGLE)
A history and social studies teacher, Sewell wore a sweater with a reference to a World War II-era statement by a German pastor who warned of the danger of not speaking up against tyranny.
“I’m here for (my students) and for my neighbors, because I live in the city of Reading,” the history and social studies teacher said. “I just have a lot of friends, some are immigrants…this is a very scary time for them.”
Sewell and several thousand others came to Wyomissing Saturday to make clear their issues with ICE and the Trump administration’s approach to immigration policy.
Chants of “This is what democracy looks like,” and “love, not hate, makes America great,” captured the mood on the sidewalks near Penn Avenue and Park Road
The chants and cheers from protesters spilling onto both sides of Penn Avenue were the refrain to a constant chorus of honks from passing cars.
Those anti-ICE sentiments were punctuated further by hundreds of signs decrying the agency, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and President Donald Trump in seemingly every turn of phrase imaginable.
Several thousand people protested in Wyomissing Saturday against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s purchase of a warehouse in Upper Bern Township for use as a processing facility for detainees. (BILL UHRICH/READING EAGLE)
Noting a Pennsylvania Dutch tradition of the season, Kurt Reed of Reading bore a sign reading “fasnachts not Fascists.”
“When you’re dragging people out of cars and shooting them in the back, what else does it take (to motivate people to protest),” Reed said.
Elyse Rosania donned a dinosaur costume that was meant to add levity to heavy topics.
“It’s horrible, what (ICE) is doing,” Rosania said.
Alyse Rosania collects signatures during a protest against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement purchase of a warehouse in Upper Bern Township for use as a processing facility for detainees. (BILL UHRICH/READING EAGLE)
The “ICE Out” protest, organized by the Berks County Democratic Committee, was meant as a peaceful display of resistance.
Providing a soundtrack to the protest was Harry Prutzman of Hamburg, playing guitar and belting lyrics like “it’s not about immigration, it’s all about intimidation.”
Harry Prutzman of Hamburg sings protest songs during a protest in Wyomissing Saturday against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement purchase of a warehouse in Upper Bern Township for use as a processing facility for detainees. (BILL UHRICH/READING EAGLE)
“It’s music that helps propel the message to a large group of people,” Prutzman said, noting protest songs that inspired him by Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen.
Amber Kulaga, Oley, and Susan Blakely, Shillington, sought to spread positive vibes with simple signs displaying hearts.
Amber Kulaga, left, and Susan Blakely, both of Shillington, protest in Wyomissing Saturday against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement purchase of a warehouse in Upper Bern Township for use as a processing facility for detainees. (BILL UHRICH/READING EAGLE)
“Love trumps hate,” Blakely said. “Choose love. Absolutely.”
Blakely and Kulaga said they came out to protest ICE’s purchase of a warehouse in Upper Bern Township, which the agency aims to turn into a detention center that can hold up to 1,500 people.
“I don’t believe in warehousing people,” Blakely said. “I don’t know how our society got so damaged that we don’t care about human lives.”
Holding people in warehouses without due process is just draconian, said Charles Corbit, event organizer and Berks County Democratic Committee treasurer.
“It’s not only a humanity thing, it’s also a big cost impact to the county,” he said. “From an infrastructure perspective, from a services perspective, it’s going to change the whole tenor of the area.”
Corbit said he was happy seeing so many people united on Saturday.
“The real difference with us, this is a peaceful crowd,” Corbit said. “We’re loud, we have our opinion, but we’re respecting the peaceful nature of this.”
Protesters gather along Penn Avenue in Wyomissing for a demonstration in opposition to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. (Bill Uhrich – Reading Eagle)