{"id":175625,"date":"2026-04-25T08:01:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T08:01:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/175625\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T08:01:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T08:01:13","slug":"no-kings-protest-in-reading-pennsylvania-brings-out-opposition-to-ice-detention-facility-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/175625\/","title":{"rendered":"No Kings protest in Reading, Pennsylvania brings out opposition to ICE detention facility"},"content":{"rendered":"

Across\u00a0thousands of cities<\/a>\u00a0nationwide, including\u00a0dozens in Pennsylvania<\/a>, millions of Americans rallied against the Trump administration Saturday in the third \u201cNo Kings\u201d protests since President Donald Trump returned to office.<\/p>\n

Outside of massive demonstrations in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, commonwealth residents assembled in smaller municipalities like Reading, located in Berks County, where U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is planning to establish a 1,500-bed detention facility.<\/p>\n

Cousins Jennifer and Jackie Arteaga, of Mexican descent, said current events seemed almost surreal, keeping the American dream out of reach. They said they feared for family members who don\u2019t have documentation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels like our country is a joke \u2026 with a government that\u2019s so unjust,\u201d said Jennifer Arteaga, 25, who attended with her 3-year-old son. \u201cIt\u2019s his future we\u2019re talking about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jackie Arteaga, 20, lives 20 minutes from the proposed detention facility, and said she worries about seeing ICE agents in her community.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a scary feeling to know that I might be seeing them at the Wawa by my house,\u201d said Jackie Arteaga. \u201cWhat do I do?\u201d<\/p>\n

Jennifer Arteaga criticized the use of the empty warehouse for ICE, saying that resources could be used to house homeless people in the area instead. Jackie Arteaga also worried about the impact of the facility on her area\u2019s water and sewage system \u2014 which state officials cited as\u00a0barriers in administrative orders<\/a>\u00a0earlier this month.<\/p>\n

The two weren\u2019t the only protesters motivated by their opposition to ICE\u2019s actions to attend the rally. Many of the signs along the busy intersection criticized the agency, and event organizers with the Berks County Democratic Committee handed out \u201cNo ICE\u201d pins and paper crowns.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m against it. Period,\u201d said Patti Rose, wearing a \u201cNo ICE in Berks County\u201d pin. She said she opposed and protested\u00a0a previous detention center<\/a>\u00a0in the county designed to house families.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not about criminals, it\u2019s about rounding people up randomly,\u201d said Rose, 67. \u201cWe have a lot of empty warehouses in Pennsylvania, we\u2019re a prime target for their campaign \u2026 it\u2019s barbaric.\u201d<\/p>\n

Repeat protests<\/p>\n

Lined up a quarter mile or more on each side of the intersecting roadways, a few hundred people chanted and cheered against a backdrop of near-constant honking from drive-by supporters and several live music performers. Some protesters marched with cowbells and tambourines, others sang choral music and at least one person played punk music from a portable speaker.<\/p>\n

Aside from ICE, other popular protest topics included frustration with Democratic U.S. Sen. John Fetterman for recent votes aligned with the Republican party, outrage over the lack of action \u2014 or arrests \u2014 from the Epstein files and opposition to the war in Iran.<\/p>\n

For two friends from nearby Temple, the nonstop news seemed to be a ploy to keep people occupied and divide their attention.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s only been 14 months and the amount of damage he\u2019s done \u2026 people become almost numb to it,\u201d said Elaine Shoemacker.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s so much that when you make a poster you think, \u2018What do I pick?\u2019\u201d Brenda Reedy quipped.<\/p>\n

Donna Bailey, of Reading, who was at her third No Kings protest, said she keeps coming to No Kings rallies for her grandchildren.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd the fear of losing democracy, of going backwards\u201d said Bailey. \u201cFear of my grandchildren not being able to afford life \u2026 it\u2019s just getting worse.<\/p>\n

\u201cEventually it\u2019s got to stop or hit a tipping point, but every time you think it\u2019s a low point it\u2019s not low enough.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Across\u00a0thousands of cities\u00a0nationwide, including\u00a0dozens in Pennsylvania, millions of Americans rallied against the Trump administration Saturday in the third…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":158064,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[40360,34,21934,128,130,129,77470,7255],"class_list":["post-175625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-civic-engagement","tag-donald-trump","tag-literature","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-state-new","tag-state-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175625\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/158064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}