Gladis Garzon and her family have spent eight months in a void.<\/p>\n
It began the day her husband and the father of their four children, Carlos Gonzalo, was taken into custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat hurts most is not the financial strain,\u201d Garzon wrote in a letter seeking help from Gov. Josh Shapiro. \u201c(It\u2019s) the silence left by his absence. No voice to comfort us. No embrace to reassure us. No presence to hold our family together.\u201d<\/p>\n
Garzon\u2019s letter was read aloud during Disappeared In Berks, a vigil for 75 immigrants discharged by the Berks County Jail\u00a0 to ICE between March 2025 and March 2026.<\/p>\n
To recognize the missing, 75 pairs of empty shoes were placed along the altar and steps of the First Unitarian Universalist Church in Reading during the event.<\/p>\n
\u201cI stand here in the midst of these shoes with sadness, tinged with some anger,\u201d said the Rev. Steve Ohnsman, pastor at Calvary United Church of Christ, Reading. \u201cI want people to not be afraid of being disappeared\u2026This is not the land of \u2018show me your papers.\u2019 Or at least, it shouldn\u2019t be.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Dalai](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/REG-L-DisappearedInBerks282.jpg\")
Dalai Zambrano Galvis reads in Spanish a letter from Gladis Garzon of Bern Township to Gov. Josh Shapiro advocating for the release of her husband, Carlos Gonzalo Zhunio, from ICE detention during a Disappeared in Berks rally and town hall meeting at the Unitarian Universalist Church in the 400 block of Franklin Street on Saturday, April 25, 2026. (BILL UHRICH\/READING EAGLE)<\/p>\n
Gonzalo\u2019s story is like that of many young asylum seekers.<\/p>\n
He fled a collapsing Ecuador in 1993 and headed north, hoping for a better life.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe dreamed of buying a house,\u201d Garzon said. \u201cWe dreamed of having our children in good schools. With honest work and sacrifice, we achieved those goals.\u201d<\/p>\n
Garzon and Gonzalo moved to Bern Township in 2005, and they operated their own business starting in 2010.<\/p>\n
Over the years, Gonzalo worked as a driver, construction worker, plumber, roofer and house cleaner.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe (Gonzalo Zhunio) has been a tireless, dedicated, and responsible worker,\u201d Garzon said. \u201cWe have always paid our taxes and fulfilled our responsibilities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gonzalo was well-respected in the community and was a regular in a prayer group at their church, Garzon said.<\/p>\n
\u201c(He) has always been willing to help anyone in need,\u201d Garzon said.<\/p>\n
Gonzalo and Garzon have been married for decades. Three of their children are U.S. citizens.<\/p>\n
Their family\u2019s idyllic life evaporated once ICE caught wind of Gonzalo.<\/p>\n
Garzon said Gonzalo tried to buy a gun to keep predators away from the family\u2019s chicken coop. That process landed him in ICE custody.<\/p>\n
Since being arrested, Gonzalo has been shuffled between ICE facilities from Moshannon Valley in Clearfield County to as far away as Texas and Louisiana.<\/p>\n
While in detention he has faced lack of access to quality medical care and nutritious meals. He is enduring crumbling ceilings and other unsafe conditions and little to no outside contact.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis prolonged detention is destroying our family,\u201d Garzon said. \u201cWe want him back home with our children.\u201d<\/p>\n
ICE in Berks<\/p>\n
The issue of ICE activities has been amplified in Berks since the agency\u2019s proposal this year to convert a warehouse in Upper Bern Township into a 1,500-bed detention center and to launch a similar project in nearby Tremont, Schuylkill County..<\/p>\n
The agency garnered nationwide attention and outrage after high-profile killings involving ICE agents.<\/p>\n
But ICE has been active in Berks since long before its recent notoriety, said activist Jane Palmer, who spoke at a town hall after the vigil.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t see it; it\u2019s not like Minneapolis,\u201d Palmer said. \u201cWhat they do here is much more insidious. Every day, Berks residents are taken.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said the 75 missing people accounts only for those voluntarily turned over by the county jail system.<\/p>\n
\u201c75 doesn\u2019t even begin to count those other people,\u201d Palmer said. \u201cWe don\u2019t know what happens to them.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said activists must push elected officials to stop collaborating with ICE.<\/p>\n
Elected leaders weigh in<\/p>\n
Several elected officials spoke against ICE at the vigil.<\/p>\n
Local leaders have been asking the U.S. Department of Homeland Security questions about the Upper Bern warehouse but say they have yet to receive solid answers.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne day they\u2019re moving forward, the next day there\u2019s a pause,\u201d Berks County Commissioner Dante Santoni Jr. said. \u201cThen we hear they\u2019re going to use the Upper Bern and Schuylkill County facilities as a blueprint for the rest of the country.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Berks](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/REG-L-DisappearedInBerks283.jpg\")
Berks County Commissioner Dante Santoni speaks during a Disappeared in Berks rally and town hall meeting at the Unitarian Universalist Church in the 400 block of Franklin Street on Saturday, April 25, 2026. (BILL UHRICH\/READING EAGLE)<\/p>\n
Santoni said he\u2019s against the warehouse being used for ICE detention.<\/p>\n
On the federal level, the commissioner called for comprehensive, bipartisan immigration reform that addresses issues such as border security and a path to citizenship.<\/p>\n
Also speaking was Alyssa Kane, managing partner at Aldea PJC., Reading, which provides low-cost legal services to immigrants.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been practicing law since 2019,\u201d Kane said. \u201cThis is the first time I\u2019ve seen so many community members so subjugated by fear that they are choosing to leave (the U.S.)\u2026People are now facing the very real possibly that they may be in prison here, solely because of their immigration status.\u201d<\/p>\n
State Rep. Johanny Cepeda-Freytiz said her parents came to the U.S. from the Dominican Republic.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy dad was a permanent (U.S.) resident,\u201d she said. \u201cMy mom became a U.S. citizen. However, the times we live in today, they could easily (have been) picked up off the street.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said her office is pursuing several goals on immigration reform, including working with state officials to limit funding for local governments working with ICE.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you have the means to actively engage and work with the ICE department, then you really don\u2019t need that (new) police vehicle,\u201d Cepeda-Freytiz said. \u201cBecause why are you diverting tax dollars working with (ICE) when your job is to protect the local community.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"State](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/REG-L-DisappearedInBerks285.jpg\")
State Rep. Johanny Cepeda-Freytiz speaks during a Disappeared in Berks rally and town hall meeting at the Unitarian Universalist Church in the 400 block of Franklin Street on Saturday, April 25, 2026. (BILL UHRICH\/READING EAGLE)<\/p>\n
She urged people to engage more with their local government, pay attention to what local officials support in Congress and speak by voting.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to take all of us raising hell, making noise,\u201d Cepeda-Freytiz told the crowd.<\/p>\n
![\"Participants](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/REG-L-DisappearedInBerks279.jpg\")
Participants enter a Disappeared in Berks rally and town hall meeting at the Unitarian Universalist Church in the 400 block of Franklin Street on Saturday, April 25, 2026. (BILL UHRICH\/READING EAGLE)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gladis Garzon and her family have spent eight months in a void. It began the day her husband…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":176524,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[349,182,139,28,128,130,129,706],"class_list":["post-176523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-berks-county","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-top-stories-reg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176523","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=176523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176523\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/176524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}