Advocacy group announces formation of immigrants rights coalition

Yahoo

18-06-2025

Jun. 17—FORTY FORT — Unable to voice their concerns after they were told the public comment portion of the agenda was over at Tuesday's meeting of the Luzerne County Flood Protection Authority, a group announced that it is forming an immigrants' rights coalition in Northeastern Pennsylvania.
The group held a news conference outside the authority's building along Wyoming Avenue to announce its plans prior to the board meeting.
They also released a statement that they were denied reading at the board meeting.
"Over the last few weeks, we have witnessed an increased presence of ICE and HSI in our community across NEPA," the statement read. "Contradicting their own narrative of going after violent criminals, they have not only been raiding homes, but also restaurants and factories, arresting folks who are hard at work, earning below-market wages, to provide for themselves and their families."
The group also said that they have seen "this administration" not only go after undocumented immigrants, but also lock up and/or revoke the immigration status of folks for exercising the first amendment.
"We have seen the deportation of a union worker, and after the Executive branch admitted to doing so by mistake, an entire narrative was spun and post-hoc charges created before returning him to the states from a foreign prison," the group stated. "These examples shed light on the overarching authoritarianism and erosion of civil liberties."
The statement added that "the expansive overreach of federal agencies isn't just happening in big cities, but right in our small towns and neighborhoods."
The group said that on June 5, at around 1 p.m., HSI along with other federal agencies raided Wyoming Valley Pallets, arresting several members of the community.
"The worst crime that any of them were accused of is a DUI," the group said. "By June 12, at least one of them had already arrived in Mexico City."
The group statement said, "Rather than recognize our shared humanity and that we're a nation of immigrants, the current federal administration aims to divide us. We will not sit idly by while division is sown. We will stand in unity with our immigrant neighbors."
The meeting
While the news conference was continuing outside the Flood Protection building, the board convened and went through its agenda. The public comment portion was at the top, but when asked if anyone wanted to speak, nobody was present to present their case that was being articulated under a tent at the rear of the building.
When the group entered the meeting room, the board was wrapping up routine business. A few of the members of the newly formed coalition objected, demanding that they be heard, but the board adjourned the meeting and left.
Despite not being allowed to speak and have their concerns entered into the official record, Michael Nicotera of Rice Twp., who said he is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, displayed a chart that he said depicts how the rented space will be utilized. Nicotera said the plans include two prisoner restraint stools that have shackles, which he said were never part of the plans told to them by the authority. Nicotera said the restraint stools are used to hold detainees on the premises.
In a Times Leader story in May, it was reported that there would be no immigration enforcement operations based in or operating out of offices the Luzerne County Flood Protection Authority plans to lease to U.S Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), according to Forty Fort Borough officials.
The story said the unused space in the flood authority's Forty Fort headquarters would host administrative offices for HSI, which is overseen by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The borough said the offices are being moved there from their location in the regional office of the PA Attorney General in Wilkes-Barre.
A post on the Forty Fort Facebook page read, "There will be NO immigration enforcement operations based in or operating out of the offices in Forty Fort."
In that same TL story, authority Executive Director Christopher Belleman said that the renovation plans do not call for detention or holding cells.
According to previous reporting, Belleman said Homeland Security will pay the authority approximately $30,000 annually to lease 1,700 square feet of space for three years, with the option for an additional two-year renewal.
Reach Bill O'Boyle at 570-991-6118 or on Twitter @TLBillOBoyle.