The video, taken Aug. 5 by a bystander in front of Lockport High School, is gut wrenching. A mother is running down Lincoln Avenue, hysterical and in tears as she tries to catch up with the unmarked SUV that has just taken away her son.
A lanky man in a black vest marked “POLICE ICE” walks nonchalantly to his car, chatting on his phone, as if he has done nothing more than pull over to pick up a random piece of trash on the street.
Abductions like these are happening by the thousands every day across the United States. Now they have come to Lockport.
On Saturday, the local citizen action group Stand Up Lockport will hold its largest protest to date. The aim is to demonstrate local opposition to the mass abductions and detentions that have captured not only people in the United States illegally, but thousands with legal permission to be here, and even U.S. citizens.
The protest will take place from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the intersection of South Transit Road and Shimer Drive. Organizers say they picked the spot for maximum visibility and are inviting all interested members of the public to make signs and join in.
While Trump administration officials have insisted that the ICE abductions are aimed at violent criminals, the vast majority of those taken have committed no criminal offense. The man taken in front of the high school was driving the van of his family’s local roofing company.
The local impacts of ICE abductions go well beyond the one last month in front of Lockport High School.
Niagara County Sheriff Michael Filicetti recently acknowledged that the Niagara County Jail is now housing ICE detainees. Asked if he was jailing people living in the U.S. legally he replied, “I don’t know their circumstances.” Stand Up Lockport has asked for a meeting with Filicetti to discuss the situation at the jail.
Appleton fruit grower Jim Bittner explained at a public forum last month that the ICE abductions are also affecting local farmers and their workers who are here legally. “We don’t know what to advise our workers about going to their asylum case hearings,” he said. If workers don’t go to those hearings they risk losing their right to be in the U.S. But if they do go, ICE agents have been abducting them right at the courthouse.
Polls show that a majority of Americans believe the ICE abductions have gone too far.
Here is what some of the local residents who plan to be on the street Saturday have to say about why they’ll be there.
“ICE needs to stop terrorizing our communities, with fear and anxiety caused by masked men in our neighborhoods.” — Jimmy Gugliuzza, Lockport
“As ICE agents are forced to reach higher quotas, they are targeting people who are no threat to public safety and have no criminal background. These are our friends, our neighbors, our students, and our local workers.” — Karen Hannah, Newfane
“Kidnapping people off of the streets at random is morally unacceptable. This is not who we are.” — Debbie Ramos, Lockport
“I’m protesting against the billions of dollars of taxpayer money going to pay for the violence and cruelty by ICE towards immigrants and the US citizens that get caught up in it. The SPCA treats stray animals better.” — Terry Fiedler, Cambria
“I’m protesting ICE for its dark, creepy abuses of American liberties and rights. Most taken by heartless ICE agents are hard workers and family members guilty of no crimes.” — David Stockton, Lockport
“What ICE is doing is cruel, and it’s unconstitutional and it’s sickening. It’s being done to try and scare people. We need to take a stand!” — Monica Clifford, Lockport
“Due process is guaranteed to all regardless of citizenship. When due process is denied to one minority, how long before it is denied to another and then to the next and so on.” — Kevin McDonough, Lockport
“These ICE abductions of immigrants legally working here are horribly wrong. The detention of law abiding noncitizens to fill corporate for-profit detention centers must be exposed and stopped.” — David (naturalized citizen from Japan), Lockport
“I will be protesting against ICE in Lockport because it is morally wrong to grab our Latino neighbors on our streets. How can we be complicit? We cannot condone what is happening in our city!” — Marie Hadley, Lockport
“At the President’s behest, ICE targets foreign-ish people, physically apprehends them in masked confrontations, jails people, and breaks up families. They’re housed in facilities among violent criminals in jails like the one in our county.” — Carla Speranza, Niagara County legislator, Lockport
“The apprehension of people of color by thugs in masks is just a modernization of the KKK and there is no place for racism here in our country.” — Kristin Hadley, Olcott
“I’m participating in the protest Saturday to wake up our community to the fact that people in our community are in danger of being snatched off our streets by masked men in unmarked cars.” — Carol Gala, Lockport
“I’m protesting ICE to send a clear message that Lockport residents will not be complicit in policies that separate families and criminalize immigrants and refugees.” — Hazard Buck, Lockport
“I protest ICE because I believe in the rule of law and the Constitution.” — Mary Seaman, Lockport
“My husband and I are protesting because it’s un-American to kidnap anyone off of our streets. These people are our neighbors just trying to live a peaceful life and we have thugs abducting them without any justice, just because they aren’t white.” — Patty Patton, Gasport
More information about the Saturday march is available on the Stand Up Lockport Facebook page and by email at: standuplockport@gmail.com.