Monarch butterflies, messages to Gov. Josh Shapiro, and joy during this anti-ICE art workshop
As immigration enforcement gets increased funding, support for ICE decreases, and Philadelphians are spreading the message through art.
When artist and lifelong activist Susan Jekarl moved back to Philadelphia last month, she was surprised at the faces she was seeing at anti-ICE protests.
“I just feel like being born and raised in Philly, we as a people are always standing up and speaking up for others,” she said. “But, this time around I’m meeting so many people that tell me they have never protested before.”
Recent protests of the White House and its immigration policies have brought millions of Americans out into the streets — some for their first time in defiance — and it takes dozens of organizations and thousands of volunteers to make that possible, Jekarl said.
On Saturday, artists from across the city gathered in West Philadelphia at arts nonprofit Spiral Q to produce dozens of artworks protesting the actions of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the current White House’s immigration policies. They soon will be in the hands of protesters during upcoming marches and displayed at government buildings associated with immigration enforcement.
Philadelphia is a “welcoming city,” which means the local government and police force do not cooperate with federal immigration enforcement. And while deportations of undocumented immigrants are generally supported by two-thirds of Americans, a Gallup survey published Friday found concerns over immigration are decreasing, with a record-high 79% of Americans considering “immigration being good for the country.”
Jasmine Rivera, the executive director of the Pennsylvania Immigration Coalition who organized Saturday’s event, said that Philadelphia — with 15% of its population not born in the U.S. — is better off because of its diverse residents.
“We see that acutely in Philadelphia, where we see how our city has been, in certain neighborhoods, revived by immigration. The 9th Street Corridor, Castor Avenue, Chinatown,” Rivera said. “We see that not only translate on the economic revival, but we also see that translate into the cultural vibrancy.”
The focal point of the day’s workshop was painting cardboard cutouts of the monarch butterfly, a generational symbol of immigration for decades, especially in the U.S. and Mexico, where the monarch butterfly makes its annual migration from Mexico to Canada.
“Governor Shapiro, protect public benefit program data from ICE” read a 6-foot-long banner, painted in black font. Another read, “Never lease a state facility to ICE,” — both in reference to ICE’s attempts to secure access to state data on citizens and immigrants and planned expansion of detention facilities across the U.S.
Rivera said these messages are only going to become more important as immigration enforcement efforts ramp up after ICE was awarded an unprecendented amount of funding through President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.”
Gov. Josh Shapiro has criticized Trump throughout his second term, such as when he joined all the nation’s Democratic governors in condemning the president’s use of National Guard troops in California to police and quell protesters during last month’s “No Kings” marches. But, Shapiro’s staff has asserted Pennsylvania is not a “sanctuary state” and that state agencies do cooperate with ICE.
Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle L. Parker has upheld the city’s decade-old “sanctuary city” policies, however, Tammy Murphy of Make the Road Pennsylvania feels the mayor and the governor are distancing themselves from the topic.
“What we’re doing here also ties to Mayor Parker and Gov. Shapiro who have both been silent on this issue of immigration and deportation,” Murphy said. “They both have it in their power to do a lot of things, but one of the main things that they’re not doing, is to just speak on it.”