Image: “Puerto Rico” by Lee Cannon is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
On Jan. 20, President Donald Trump began a slew of Executive Orders targeting illegal immigration, following up on his ominous campaign promises to begin “Day One” of his second term with “the largest deportation program in American History.”. Executive Order 14159, titled “Protecting the American People against Invasion,” revoked many legal protections designed to prevent abuse against migrants, such as Sanctuary Jurisdictions (Sec. 17) and family reunification, with Trump encouraging law enforcement to “ensure the efficient and expedited removal of aliens from the United States” (Sec. 9) . Following these orders, raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have begun taking place with unprecedented frequency across Pennsylvania, including in Chester County.
According to the Daily Local, a spokesperson for Homeland Security has confirmed that ICE has arrested undocumented individuals in the Chester County area, sending shockwaves through the community. The response from local leaders regarding the incident has been bipartisan but responsive to public opinion’s discomfort with the brutality of the Trump administration’s policy, with Kennett Square Chief of Police William Holdsworth emphasizing that “our officers will not act in the capacity of immigration enforcement or detention.” Addressing ICE presence in Kennett Square, Mayor Matthew Fetick stated that “If the immigration system wasn’t so broken we wouldn’t need to worry about raids, we’d have a solid pathway not just for guest workers, but for citizenship.”
Citizens of Kennett Square have taken to the internet to share their mixed reactions on the raids. “Solid start,” one Facebook user commented. “Time to really get after it.” Another user responded to the gifs of applause and cheerful memes from white users with “I hope all of you want the jobs they are doing for the price they were being paid,” referencing the 49% of agricultural labor in PA that comes from undocumented workers, many of whom seek out positions legal citizens do not want to fill. “Understandably many people are concerned about all of this uncertainty,” Kennett Square Council President Bob Norris said in a statement. It seems that the uncertainty has spread across the county, making its way all the way to West Chester University’s (WCU) campus.
On the evening of Jan. 26, the same week as the reported ICE raids were unfolding in other Chester County boroughs, students at West Chester University reported seeing an ICE vehicle on campus. However, University administration clarified in a statement emailed to members of the community that the vehicle is “not believed to be an official government vehicle.” Public Safety, upon reviewing security footage of the vehicle, noticed an “ICE Volunteer Corps” sticker on its door, noting that such stickers are available for purchase online. “We believe that the vehicle’s unofficial signage was meant to create confusion and concern,” investigators stated. Various student organizations took to social media to issue statements of their own, seeking to comfort or inform students in the wake of the disturbing incident. In a statement on Instagram, the Latin American Student Organization of West Chester University said that “seeing our country’s fundamental promise (liberty and justice for all) be broken to innocent individuals has become a disheartening reality.” The group added to “Let us not forget the power and love embedded in our community […] We are all deserving of peace in this land of the free.” The student organization captioned their statement with a reminder to “please take care of yourselves during this time” as the weight of the intimidation bears down on West Chester’s Latino communities.
As student orgs use official means to reach out to students during these unsettling times, students also took to more anonymous social media platforms to express their feelings on the “fake ICE” incident and the Trump administration’s reign of terror against immigrant communities in general. On YikYak (an app that anonymously connects you with other members of your student body), one student said “crazy that the school has to send two different emails this week about things that have happened since he (Trump) became president and yall STILL don’t realize there’s a problem.” The post was referencing another recent email from the WCU administration clarifying that Trump’s confusing plans for gutting financial aid wouldn’t be affecting students at this moment.
As for the “ICE Volunteer Corps” incident, another poster said “since it was used to cause panic/fear/division we should ignore it because otherwise you’re giving them what they want.” A different student rebutted, replying “I actually think we shouldn’t just ignore it because unfortunately it quite literally [is] what is going on in the world currently and it represents the lengths people will go to try and incite fear into people and how freely and comfortably they feel they can do so.” Another anonymous user, allegedly a staff member on campus, confided that they “find it deeply disturbing that the email students received was so vague about the aftermath. … Their (the owner of the truck sporting the fake ICE sticker) intention was to sow terror and fear into the public — that’s terrorism.” The staff member continued, saying “It’s disappointing to work for a company that doesn’t see how disturbing this is.”
On Monday, Feb. 3, the Latin-American community of Kennett Square held a peaceful demonstration in response to the raids and the unrest Trump’s policies have brought to the borough, which was covered by Jen Samuels of The Daily Local. While there have been rumors and suggestions of future demonstrations from WCU’s student groups in response to the intimidating incident on campus, an activist response remains unclear due to the university’s recent policy changes. These policies, which have drawn more accusations of sinister vagueness from students, staff and faculty alike, place restrictions on political expression on campus property. With Trump’s own opinions on protesters clear (“Can’t you just shoot them?” he allegedly said, according to his former Defense Secretary), the future of the public’s ability to voice their opinion towards his policy — both on campus and elsewhere — remains disturbingly uncertain.
Elijah Fischer is a third-year English and MDC major. Af997636@wcupa.edu