ICE tactics unconstitutional, Sellersville ‘No Kings’ protesters say

A Presidents’ Day rally in Sellersville drew local activists speaking out against ICE raids and federal power.

A local political group held a protest in Sellersville on Feb. 16 against ICE and executive overreach.

Upper Bucks United, a left-leaning group associated with the national Indivisible network, held their second annual Presidents’ Day protest against what attendees said is an inappropriate expansion of executive branch powers under the Trump administration.

This year’s protest, which drew 50 to 75 people on Monday morning, focused on recent immigration enforcement practices as an example of overreach.

“ICE must be abolished,” said Juan Vargas, a Dominican immigrant and state Senate candidate, to cheers from the crowd.

Speakers like Rev. Philip Krey, a historian, decried the “mass rounding up of immigrant neighbors, foreigners, and refugees,” connecting the current local opposition to immigration policies to the colonial era, when Bucks County residents refused to quarter soldiers.

Upper Bucks community group wants freer, more open primaries

Local concerns also featured in speeches. Upper Bucks United, which organized around community issues before becoming an official part of Indivisible, is supporting a campaign encouraging local Democratic Party officials to refuse to endorse candidates at their endorsement meeting later this week.

The campaign comes as state and local party leaders have thrown early support behind candidates, including Eileen Albillar and Bradley Merkl-Gump, before official endorsements or primary votes have occurred. A recent straw poll to limit candidates for the state Senate race that includes Upper Bucks failed as several candidates and committee leaders said they’d prefer a competitive primary.

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“If I lose, I lose,” said Vargas, who’s running against Merkl-Gump and Wayne Codner for state Senate District 16. But to limit candidates so early in the race “is completely undemocratic.”

“No kings,” said Lucia Simonelli, who’s running in a crowded Democratic primary for US Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick’s Congressional seat. “And no kingmakers.”

Laura Foster, an Upper Bucks United organizer, said screening out candidates at the county party level is outdated.

“This is looking through the lens of old-school politics and that’s not where we’re at as a country,” Foster said, citing recent comments by State Sen. Steve Santarsiero. He heads the Bucks Democrats and said during the straw poll meeting that “any process” leading to a Democrat winning the District 16 seat “is the right process.”

“That’s not democracy,” Foster said.

Sellersville protesters say federal tactics violate Constitution

Protesters had gathered at Druckenmiller Park to hear the speakers before lining Main Street holding signs and chanting.

Sellersville resident Jennifer Angello said she’s disheartened by the way that the federal government is both deporting undocumented people and revoking the status of people who are legally in the country. “The way ICE is going about deportations … is against all American policies and what our forefathers put in place,” Angello said.

Many protesters said they only started attending protests during the second Trump administration. Monday was the first-ever protest for siblings Emily and Josiah Friesen, who said he’s protesting immigration control tactics.

“Every person should have due process rights under the Constitution,” Josiah Friesen said.

Emily Friesen said she brought her brothers to the protest because reading the news isn’t enough. “It needs to lead to some kind of action.”

Rick Kimball of Telford said deporting people without due process should raise concerns for all Americans. “They could do that to you and I.”

That includes people who don’t share his views, Kimball said. “We’re all Americans.”

The protest saw limited backlash from passersby, including someone in a dark-colored SUV who yelled that the protesters should be deported next.