Why we Occupy: an FAQ

Our occupation has three core demands. They are:

1. End PARS 2. Close Berks 3. Abolish ICE

What is PARS?
It’s an acronym for Preliminary Arraignment Reporting System, a real-time computer database of arrests
shared by the city of Philadelphia with ICE. The vast majority of undocumented people are caught via
small infractions, citations and tickets enforced by local police (which is why we say Abolish the Police as
well!) The contract with ICE is up for renewal at the end of August, we are demanding Mayor Kenney
end PARS data sharing with ICE right now!

What is Berks?
The Berks County Detention Center is a prison for immigrant families located in Berks county, PA, where
children as young as two-weeks-old have been incarcerated. Berks houses people in horrific conditions
for months on end while they await trial and sometimes deportation. It is currently operating in direct
violation of its license according to Pennsylvania law. We are demanding DHS Secretary Ted Dallas
immediately issue an Emergency Removal Order so the families can be released.

What is ICE?
ICE stands for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. It was created in 2003 as part of the general ramp
up of the US police state known as the War on Terror. ICE is a combination police and prison force, and
ICE agents are the people separating children from their parents and guardians, imprisoning immigrants
in horrific conditions at places like Berks, and patrolling the border, forcing migrants into more and more
dangerous desert crossings where untold thousands die a year.

When we say Abolish ICE we don’t just mean rolling back immigration policy to before 2003: we
demand an end to all enforcement of borders. Our demand means NO MORE BORDERS! We believe
that everyone in the world should be free to move where they want and need. The systems of settler
colonialism and white supremacist capitalism have used borders to turn billions of people into cheap
laborers, to justify the theft of indigenous lands and the destruction of indigenous ways of life, to stoke
nationalist and imperialist wars and to enforce racist and anti-Black state and economic structures. We
oppose this violence by fighting for freedom of movement for everyone on the planet!

Who are we?

We are friends, comrades, co-conspirators, activists, workers, unhoused, immigrants, unemployed,
angry, fed-up, revolutionaries, abolitionists, anarchists, socialists, optimists, dreamers. Many of us are
indigenous, LGBTQ+, latinx and/or Black. We are a national movement. We are anyone willing to stand
up to this border regime and say NO MORE. You can join the movement by being here with us.

No Berks, No PARS, No Cops, No Borders, Abolish ICE!