Rally in Pittsburgh calls for McCormick and Fetterman to oppose DHS funding
Dozens of people came together on Tuesday in Downtown Pittsburgh to rally outside the federal building, urging the U.S. Senate to vote against additional funding for the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
People from across southwestern Pennsylvania rallied on Liberty Avenue outside the William S. Moorhead Federal Building, making their voices heard following the shooting of Alex Pretti by U.S. Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis.
Hosted by Indivisible Pittsburgh, in partnership with other groups like Casa San José, which serves the city's Latino immigrants, people at the rally called on Pennsylvania's U.S. senators, Republican Dave McCormick and Democrat John Fetterman, to listen.
"You're not protecting us. You're killing us," Casa San José Executive Director Monica Ruiz said. "People are dying. There's no dollar sign on that, or no amount of inconvenience of shutting down the government to get this done right."
This cry comes as the U.S. Senate prepares to vote on a bill that, if not passed, could result in another partial government shutdown at the end of the week. The bill calls for an additional $64 billion for the Department of Homeland Security, including $10 billion for its ICE division. This would come on top of the $165 billion DHS received last year, its largest annual budget since it was founded.
"We could fund health care in America, we could fund roads, we could fund infrastructure. Or we can fund ICE," said Tracy Baton, director of Indivisible Pittsburgh.
The protestors believe this money could be spent in better ways instead of on agents who they say are acting illegally, without proper training or oversight.
Angela Montalvo, the organizer of a national veterans organization called Common Defense, said she's furious about the current situation.
"Those of us who serve did not serve so that a rogue federal agent could wage war on American streets, but that's what we're seeing," said Montalvo, a U.S. Army veteran.
Pittsburgh City Council unanimously passed a "will of council" on Tuesday morning, asking the state's two U.S. senators to vote "no" on this funding, according to Councilmember Barb Warwick of District 5. Reading from the resolution, Warwick said: "drastically increasing funding for DHS and ICE will only increase their ability to cause chaos and harm in communities across the country, including here in Pittsburgh."
In a statement to KDKA, a spokesperson for Fetterman said, in part, that he "supports the current appropriations package being considered by the Senate this week" and does "not support defunding ICE."
Fetterman told KDKA in a statement, in part, that he "will never vote to shut our government down," adding he rejects "calls to defund or abolish ICE. I strongly disagree with many strategies and practices ICE deployed in Minneapolis, and believe that must change."
The groups that showed up to the rally on Tuesday told KDKA that they plan to continue to protest outside the federal building every day until the vote. Congress has to vote by Friday before funding for certain departments expires at midnight Saturday.
KDKA reached out to DHS for a comment, but has not received a response as of Tuesday evening.