People packed the Philadelphia Parking Authority\u2019s Market Street boardroom Tuesday morning to voice opposition to a variety of policies, and most of all, the PPA\u2019s parking contract with the Department of Homeland Security.\n<\/p>\n
In September 2025, the PPA entered into a one-year contract with DHS to provide 16 indoor parking spaces for $53,520.\n<\/p>\n
The contract has become the focus of protests calling on the parking authority to cut ties with the federal agency, which oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n \u201cI was raised to think, \u2018How will our actions be judged by our descendants?\u2019\u201d said Rev. Jay Bergen, a pastor at Germantown Mennonite Church and volunteer with NO ICE Philadelphia.\n <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d rather not be here today,\u201d they stated, \u201cbut I am because I am accountable to the congregation I serve, my family and my 2-year-old nephew who, in a few years, will ask, \u2018What did you do while ICE agents rounded up your neighbors?\u2019\u201d\n<\/p>\n The cost of ICE maintaining parking for 16 vehicles in Philadelphia, Bergen argued, far outweighs whatever potential actions the Trump administration<\/a> may take in response to a nonrenewal of contract.\n<\/p>\n However, Bergen reiterated a fact that is difficult to overlook: Philadelphia has taken an increasingly strong stance against ICE, recently passing a sweeping package of legislation<\/a> aimed at limiting the federal agency\u2019s operations and the city\u2019s cooperation with it.\n<\/p>\n Jack McCurnin, who works with intellectually disabled individuals in Langhorne, Pennsylvania, said ICE\u2019s continued presence<\/a> in Philadelphia\u2019s suburbs has had a negative effect on its population.\n<\/p>\n \u201cICE, through their offices in Philly, harasses multiple of my residents and their families,\u201d McCurnin said.\n<\/p>\n \u201cI want you to imagine that you cannot speak, that you\u2019re not from this country,\u201d he said. \u201dNow, you\u2019ve got an agent of the state; you don\u2019t know what they are; nobody\u2019s explained because they don\u2019t think you can understand. You can\u2019t say words, but you can feel it.\u201d\n<\/p>\n In all, around a dozen anti-ICE activists attended the meeting. Others who spoke included Miriam Oppenheimer, the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors, who likened ICE\u2019s activities in Philadelphia to those of the Gestapo in Nazi Germany.\n<\/p>\n