Immigration advocates demand Mayor Parker reassert Philadelphia's sanctuary city status
Immigration advocates are demanding Philadelphia city leaders do more to protect immigrants as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take office next month.
Dozens of activists and supporters attended a rally Tuesday afternoon in response to Trump's promise of mass deportation starting on day one of his administration. They marched from Philadelphia City Hall to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office on 8th Street in Center City to call on Philadelphia city leaders to stand with immigrants.
"We're here to request that Mayor Cherelle Parker publicly declare her commitment to defending our sanctuary city policy, and more than that, we also want her to commit to expanding it," Erika Guadalupe Núñez, the executive director of the immigration rights organization Juntos, which organized the rally, said.
Despite pressure from immigration advocates, Mayor Cherelle Parker has declined to forcefully reassert Philadelphia's status as a sanctuary city.
"I made a statement about two weeks ago and also released a public statement affirming that the 2016 executive order for the city of Philadelphia still stands," Parker said. "I don't have any other additional comments about the matter at this time."
Executive Order NO. 5-16 states the City of Philadelphia will not comply with ICE detainer requests unless they are supported by a judicial warrant and pertain to a person convicted of a felony involving violence.
Núñez said Parker's statement doesn't go far enough.
"What we really want is a clear, adamant, forceful declaration that she's going to stand by immigrant communities," Núñez said. "Because when you look at the energy that Trump is coming into the second term with and what we're seeing now, that doesn't match and it doesn't bring any community members ease."
Some people are in favor of Trump's plan.
"I believe in Donald Trump's deportation plan," Vincent Fenerty Jr., a Philadelphia Republican ward leader representing Ward 18, said. "My belief in it is ICE should start with the most violent offenders, the murderers, the drug dealers and those types of individuals who have entered our country illegally and send them back to where they came from."
Now that the march and rally are over, Núñez plans to continue her work preparing for Trump's second term. That includes hosting workshops to equip immigrants with the knowledge and tools they need to fight back against deportation.
"Over the course of a year, we usually see a couple hundred undocumented immigrant community members at our organization," Núñez said. "There are 47,000 undocumented folks, according to city records. We know there might be more, but that at minimum is how many people we're talking about that are living in fear right now because they're looking for that public assertion that the city is going to stand by them."
