Featured image provided by: Make the Road PA

National Movement Unites Pennsylvanians to Demand an End to Immigrant Detention at Berks Family Detention Center 

WHO: Shut Down Berks Coalition, Make the Road PA, CASA, Indivisible Berks, Sunrise Movement Berks

WHAT:  #ShutDownBerks – Nationwide rally to demand that the Berks Detention Center be shut down and replaced with an opioid treatment facility

WHEN:  Friday, July 12 – 7:00 p.m – 8:30 p.m

WHERE: Berks County Family Detention Center – 1040 Berks Rd, Leesport, PA

BERKS COUNTY, PA—Hundreds of activists from across the country will visit Berks County to take part in the nationwide action “Lights For Liberty” that will raise awareness of the concentration camps that have appeared along the US southern border under recent administrations and similar detention centers across Pennsylvania.

Last month, PA Auditor General Eugene Pasquale announced that he would audit Berks Detention Center – one of the country’s three ICE Family Detention Centers – after reports of physical and sexual abuse. Organizations associated with Shut down Berks Interfaith Coalition have met monthly at the center for years and petitioned lawmakers for years to stop the inhumane treatment and release the families.

The rally will take place on the grass across from the detention center and will consist of singing, chanting, prayers and holding signs specifically targeting lawmakers that have the authority to shut down the detention centers Like Governor Tom Wolf, DHS Secretary Teresa Miller and Berks County Commissioners.

Similar events are happening in Lancaster, Philadelphia, Doylestown, York, Scranton, Easton and Bethlehem.

 

Information provided to TVL by:
Ashleigh Strange
https://www.maketheroadpa.org//

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