FRONTLINE ON FOOT: The Way to Moshannon
FRONTLINE DIGNITY LAUNCHES “FRONTLINE ON FOOT: THE WAY TO MOSHANNON” ; A PUBLIC PILGRIMAGE FOR DIGNITY ACROSS SOUTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA (PRESS RELEASE)
PITTSBURGH, PA — At a time when immigration enforcement is escalating and families are being torn apart in silence, Frontline DIGNITY is taking its work to the road. On Sunday, April 5, the organization will officially launch Frontline on Foot: The Way to Moshannon with a press conference at 7:15 AM outside the Pittsburgh ICE office at 3000 Sidney Street in Pittsburgh’s South Side, immediately followed by the start of the walk at 8:00 AM.
The walk is part public witness, part organizing effort, and part fundraising campaign. Over the course of 8 days, participants will walk across Southwestern Pennsylvania toward the Moshannon Valley Processing Center, the largest ICE detention facility in the Northeast, to draw attention to the realities of immigration detention and the broader crisis facing immigrant communities.
Moshannon Valley Processing Center is operated by The GEO Group, a private for-profit prison corporation that manages detention facilities across the country. According to publicly available federal contract data, the company receives more than $2 million per month to operate the facility, making Moshannon not only a site of detention, but part of a broader system in which incarceration and immigration enforcement generate profit.
The campaign also launches a 2-week fundraising effort to help Frontline DIGNITY expand its rapid response, accompaniment, community education, and volunteer organizing work across Pennsylvania.
Press conference speakers will include:
- Carlos Mora, Northwest PA Rapid Response Network
- Jaime Martinez, Executive Director, Frontline DIGNITY
- Pastor Erin Jones, Director for Evangelical Mission, Southwestern Pennsylvania Synod, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
- Paulette Cordova-Flores, sister of Randy Cordova-Flores, detained by ICE in Springdale
Frontline on Foot: The Way to Moshannon is a multi-day public walk across Southwestern Pennsylvania, culminating at the Moshannon Valley Processing Center to bear witness to the growing loss of dignity facing immigrant communities and to build a more visible, grounded movement rooted in presence, solidarity, and action.
The walk will bring together organizers, volunteers, faith leaders, and community members to move through towns and neighborhoods with a clear message: detention, disappearance, and dehumanization cannot remain hidden behind closed doors. “When masked federal immigration agents jump out of unmarked vehicles with heavily tinted windows, people disappear. Families are left scrambling for answers, often with no one to turn to, ” said Jaime Martinez, Founder and Executive Director of Frontline DIGNITY. “Frontline on Foot is about refusing to look away. It’s about showing up—step by step—and building a movement that says dignity is not optional. ” Since launching earlier this year, Frontline DIGNITY has trained and mobilized more than 1,000 volunteers and built a growing rapid response network across the region.
The organization supports communities by documenting enforcement activity, helping families navigate crisis, and strengthening local readiness in moments of fear and uncertainty. But the organization says this moment demands more than emergency response alone. “This walk is a pilgrimage, ” Martinez added. “Not in a symbolic sense, but in a deeply physical one. We are moving through communities, listening, organizing, and making visible what too often happens out of sight. This is about the loss of dignity in this country — and what it looks like to confront it together. ”
Participants will be invited to join the walk for portions of the route, support local events along the way, and engage with opportunities to strengthen neighborhood-based organizing and rapid response efforts in their own communities. Frontline DIGNITY is calling on the public to not only witness, but to participate, whether by walking, volunteering, or financially supporting the campaign. “This is not a moment for passive support, ” Martinez said. “It’s a moment to step into the work. And we’re inviting people to do that with us — on foot. ”