Jasmine Rivera, who leads the PA Immigration Coalition, speaks to about 60 protesters calling for the state to end all interaction with ICE at the state Capitol on May 1, 2026.
Jordan Wilkie / WITF News
‘ICE out’ protest at Pa. Capitol calls on Shapiro to cut state ties with federal immigration enforcement
Gov. Shapiro has moved to block ICE detention warehouses and declined to share some state data with the federal government, but protesters want more action.
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Jordan Wilkie/WITF
Jordan Wilkie / WITF News
Jasmine Rivera, who leads the PA Immigration Coalition, speaks to about 60 protesters calling for the state to end all interaction with ICE at the state Capitol on May 1, 2026.
Editor’s note: This story was updated on Sunday, 5/3/26 at 8:45 p.m., with additional information on Gov. Shapiro’s policies.
Sixty protesters rallied on the Capitol steps Friday in an effort to push Governor Josh Shapiro to end all state collaboration with federal immigration enforcement.
Shapiro and the immigrant rights activists both claim President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown is violating Constitutional protections. They disagree on whether Shapiro is doing enough in response.
For the members of the Pennsylvania Immigration Coalition, pushing back on the federal immigration crackdown is an existential battle. Jasmine Rivera, who leads the coalition, said American democracy hangs in the balance.
“When ICE has more funding than most armies across the world have, when our president essentially has a private army at his disposal, that is a threat to our country, to our communities, and to our democracy,” Rivera said, referring to the federal Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.
Though the Coalition is calling on ending all federal ICE funding, the message from Friday’s protest was targeted at Shapiro.
“Our governor has taken some initial steps when it comes to immigrant rights, and for those initial steps, we give him kudos,” Rivera said. “But the work is far from over for what our governor can do.”
The group’s demands for Shapiro include removing ICE access to state databases unless they have a judicial warrant, to end all data sharing and communication between state law enforcement and ICE, and to close a juvenile detention center that includes a unit for immigrant children.
In a statement to WITF, Shapiro’s office said it is already protecting Pennsylvanians from federal immigration tactics that it said are “a clear abuse of power and show a disregard for the rule of law.” His administration sent a letter to immigration advocacy groups in January using similar language and which outlined the state’s executive branch policies for interacting with ICE.
Under Shapiro, Pennsylvania’s agencies have refused to share with the federal government sensitive voter data or information on people who receive food benefits. In retaliation, the Trump administration threatened to withhold $460 in food assistance funding. Shapiro, in partnership with 21 other states and the District of Columbia, sued to restore the funding.
His office has also moved to block ICE’s conversion of warehouses it purchased in Berks and Schuylkill counties into mass detention centers. Shapiro is using the regulatory power of the Department of Environmental Protection to tie the warehouses up in what could be years of legal proceedings.
But Pennsylvania still has some connection and communication with ICE. For Alex Domingos, an immigrant rights advocate with ACLU of Pennsylvania, ICE should not be able to access any state resources at all.
“Every unlawful detention or deportation, every act of cruelty in detention centers, every violent raid and arrest: it’s a profound harm enacted on all of us,” Domingos said. “Every act of voluntary collaboration by state or local officials feeds a cycle of fear, exploitation, and cruelty. It is important that every elected official hears us when we say, ‘Not in our name, not with our resources, and not in this Commonwealth.’”
What Shapiro has, and hasn’t, done
Shapiro’s office says it is already using its authority to push back on ICE and to limit state agency participation in federal immigration enforcement.
“The Governor has repeatedly taken action to protect the people of Pennsylvania from federal overreach and under the Shapiro Administration Pennsylvania does not and will not lease state facilities to ICE or DHS, the Pennsylvania State Police does not ask motorists about their immigration status, and the Governor has gone to court to prevent the Trump Administration from unlawfully seizing Pennsylvanians’ private, personal information,” according to a written statement from Shapiro spokesperson Rosie Lapowsky.
Shapiro’s office also shared details on limitations to access and use of state databases. In general, ICE already has to have specific information about an individual in order to conduct a search; state databases do not include immigration status, country of origin or race/ethnicity; and searches are limited by the purpose and reason for the request. In addition, the Commonwealth tracks every time ICE accesses a state database.
“Attempts to restrict ICE’s access to state databases would not necessarily prevent the agency from gaining access to that information through federal databases or via other federal law enforcement agencies who access state databases regularly for legitimate law enforcement purposes,” according to information from Shapiro’s office.
Rivera said she was also concerned that Shapiro did not join a coalition of states in suing the Trump administration to stop it from sharing data on Medicaid recipients with the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE and other immigration enforcement agencies.
Medicaid is largely funded by the federal government, but is administered by states. Shapiro’s office said the data is already protected by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, better known as HIPAA. Also, only citizens can access Medicaid, with narrow exceptions, making it of limited use for immigration enforcement.
The Pennsylvania Immigration Coalition also wants Shapiro to stop coordination between state prisons and ICE. Only people who are convicted of a crime and sentenced by a state court are then turned over to ICE, according to Shapiro’s office.
Rivera pointed to the case of Subramanyam “Subu” Vedam, who was released from prison after 43 years when his murder conviction was overturned, only to be detained by ICE for 1982 convictions of drug possession. In April, a judge blocked his deportation, and Vedam is seeking release from custody. As of Saturday, May 2, he was not listed in ICE’s detention lookup system.
The circumstances of Vedam’s release and rearrest by ICE are unusual, and are therefore relatively uncommon. There are other cases where ICE is seeking to deport immigrants who had charges brought but were later dropped, as in the case of Omar Vidaurre-Luis in Harrisburg.
A political calculus
Shapiro is running for reelection as governor and is expected to run for president in 2028. He doesn’t have a primary opponent for the governor’s race, and polling shows him far ahead of his presumptive Republican opponent Stacey Garrity, Pennsylvania’s current Treasurer.
But Shapiro’s re-election push is seen as a test for his chances in 2028.
That creates a political calculus where he needs to do enough to appease the base in a Democratic primary yet be strong enough on immigration to be competitive in a general election.
More people oppose ICE’s current policies than support them, according to Berwood Yost, who leads public polling at Franklin & Marshall College. Data from May show 55% of Pennsylvanians oppose how ICE is operating under Trump, and the split is strongly associated with survey respondents’ political affiliation.
Further, far more people strongly oppose ICE operations (49%) than strongly support them (31%), indicating the strength of feeling particularly among the Democratic base against ICE conduct.
People across party lines tend to agree more often when examining particular methods used by ICE, Yost said.
“Majorities object to certain things like entering a home without a warrant or using force against protesters or using unmarked vehicles,” Yost said. He added that strong majorities also object to deporting people who have protected status or green cards, or who are in the process of naturalization.
Shapiro’s public statements and condemnations of ICE have focused on those specific policies that garner broad bi-partisan opposition, for example by saying ICE under Trump has violated the rule of law, without calling for ICE to be defunded.
Produced with assistance from the Public Media Journalists Association Editor Corps funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.
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