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Dozens of Rhode Island businesses pledge to keep ICE out
“That is the basis of the pledge. ICE cannot break the law and barge into businesses to detain people, so the people will enforce this law.”
More than two dozen businesses in Rhode Island are part of a new network of “immigrant defense zones,” where doors will be closed to federal immigration agents.
Kate Hao, an organizer with the Rhode Island Deportation Defense Coalition, spoke to reporters about the new initiative in front of Crown Fried Chicken in Providence last month.
As of July 18, 25 businesses had pledged to “pledged to protect immigrant community members, including by closing their doors and refusing entry to immigration officials who do not have a judicial warrant,” Hao said.
The coalition, active since February, comprises Alliance to Mobilize Our Resistance, or AMOR, the Party for Socialism and Liberation Rhode Island, and the Olneyville Neighborhood Association.
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“There’s no warrant, no detention. Not on our watch,” PSL organizer Jair Perez told reporters. “That is the basis of the pledge. ICE cannot break the law and barge into businesses to detain people, so the people will enforce this law.”
ICE agents can enter public areas of a business but cannot breach any private areas without permission or a judicial warrant, according to the National Immigration Law Center.
The businesses, including Crown Fried Chicken, will have a sign in their windows, indicating the area as a “defense zone.” The signs also include the organization’s hotline, 401-675-1414, to report U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent activity. A similar hotline is active in Massachusetts.
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The coalition then sends volunteers to verify the ICE sighting, and “if there is an active ICE abduction taking place, then the wider network of over a thousand people who are in our community alerts channel is notified and mobilized to come out and protect our community members,” Hao said.
The businesses are primarily located in the Southside of Providence and the Westminster Street area, according to The Boston Globe, including Down the Road Movers in Providence and Frog & Toad’s two locations. The advocates did not have a full list at the press conference.
“We’re turning the entire Southside into a defense zone, and we’re not stopping at the Southside. More and more businesses are signing the pledge in the East Side, in the West End, and soon Olneyville,” Perez said. “This isn’t just citizens standing up for immigrants. This is the people standing up for the people.”
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