Frontline Dignity was recently featured in The Point Park Globe: Point Park University’s Student-Run Newspaper. From the article, ICE protests continue in Pittsburgh and beyond:
“Frontline Dignity, a volunteer-run nonprofit, is a rapid response initiative that trains volunteers how to witness, document, accompany and respond safely to ICE activity. They have a hotline phone number available on their website that can be called at any time.
“We work to build capacity to respond lawfully and effectively to immigration enforcement operations that brutalize immigrant communities,” Jamie Martinez, founder and executive director at Frontline Dignity, told The Globe.
Martinez said, during an ICE encounter, volunteers are trained to record the situation and obtain as much information about the detainee as possible so they can be located after being taken into ICE custody.
According to Martinez, ICE are often present at the courthouse Downtown. Martinez said agents can appear with or without face coverings, in plain clothes or camo, and a vest or badge that says police, federal agent, ICE, HSI, DEA, ATF or FBI. Additionally, they may or may not be armed.
Martinez said they travel in black, grey, silver and white SUVs, pick-up trucks and sedans, often domestic brands such as Ford, Dodge and Jeep.
“Watching injustice unfold in front of you is heartbreaking and tragic,” Martinez said. “We have a responsibility to let all of our neighbors know that this is happening in our communities.”
Frontline Dignity signs could be seen peppering the crowd at the protest on Friday. Amongst them were many signs displaying anti-ICE sentiments such as “ICE out” and “no one is illegal on stolen land.”
Maragold Cameron, a member of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization, was one of the speakers at the protest and helped hold a banner during the march.
“I am speaking to the unity of all of these different struggles that people are fighting for right now,” Cameron said. “What we need is to all come together and recognize our common enemy, the monopoly capitalist class, and build a strategic alliance in order to overthrow their rotten system.”
Click here to read the rest of the article on The Point Park Globe.