Immigrant Rights
Working Group
The NEPA Democratic Socialists of America stand in solidarity with all migrants, their families, and their communities against the continued and intensifying xenophobic anti-immigrant policies of the United States Government, and the militarization of their enforcement. We denounce the efforts of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) and their parent agency Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), to illegally undermine the rights of immigrants, violently terrorize their communities, and forcibly separate their families with complete disregard for due process or humanity. The incarceration and expulsion of immigrants, many of whom have fled circumstances directly inflicted by U.S. imperialism and economic hegemony, is abhorrent. We stand with immigrant students, workers, activists, families, and communities in resisting the oppressive and authoritarian exclusion of anyone arbitrarily deemed “illegal” by the racist, xenophobic capitalist class.
Join us as we work to resist the growing presence of ICE in NEPA, their commandeering of our local law enforcement and justice system, and their violent repression of our friends, family, coworkers, and neighbors. Let us build a future in which no one is illegal.
The Situation in Forty fort, PA.
In efforts to bring additional revenue, the Luzerne County Flood Protection Authority (LCFPA) has contracted with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), a directorate of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). LCFPA has agreed to renovate part of their Forty Fort headquarters into office space to be leased to HSI. The terms of this lease have been withheld from the public, despite an ongoing right-to-know request.
HSI insists there will be no immigration enforcement and removal operations (ERO) based in Forty Fort, and both LCFPA and the Forty Fort Borough appear to be taking them at their word. Unfortunately, HSI has a long and well-documented history of collaborating with ERO. This pattern of behavior has been exacerbated by the blatant and willful disregard for due process we have already seen since January 2025. There is no reason to believe that HSI's foothold in Forty Fort will protect us and our neighbors from their colleagues in ERO.
LCFPA holds public meetings the third Tuesday of every month at their administrative offices.
Let them know that ICE in any guise is not welcome!
Next LCFPA Meeting: Tuesday May 20th 2025 at 1pm
Address: 1989 Wyoming Ave, Forty Fort, PA 18704
Recent History of HSI abuses
May 9, 2025
ICE HSI agents in tactical gear surrounded and arrested the mayor of Newark, NJ outside a privately operated immigrant detention facility.
https://www.nj.com/essex/2025/05/ice-officers-arrest-newark-mayor-outside-immigrant-detention-center.html
May 8, 2025
ICE and other federal agents in Worcester, MA abducted a mother in broad daylight despite community efforts to protect her. Then local cops threw her distraught 16-year-old daughter to ground and arrested her, too.
https://www.welcometohellworld.com/they-dont-need-a-warrant/
Videos available on
https://bsky.app/profile/dschnoeb.bsky.social
April 24, 2025
dozens of armed ICE HSI agents invaded the home of US citizens in Oklahoma City, OK in a midnight raid, breaking in the door and forcing the family out of the home at gunpoint. Beyond the confiscation of their personal property, the family now lives with the trauma of not feeling safe even in their own home -- from their own government.
https://youtu.be/ScKBD7UQ2ZM?t=47
- ICE HSI claim they focus on major transnational crime, not immigration enforcement. But that has never stopped them from deporting peaceful immigrants, intimidating concerned citizens, and surveilling the public using facial recognition and interception and tracking of cell phones.
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/realignment-homeland-security-investigations
A Realignment for Homeland Security Investigations
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/realignment-homeland-security-investigations