About
IF YOU WITNESS ICE OR KNOW SOMEONE AFFECTED BY ICE ACTIVITY IN BERKS COUNTY, CALL THE TIPLINE. GIVE AS MUCH DETAIL AS YOU CAN. HELP IS AVAILABLE.
TIP LINE: 610-850-9930
What is BOW?
BOW stands for Berks Organizing Workgroup. We are concerned citizens under a larger coalition called Berks Urgent Response Network (BURN). Our aim is to protect all Berks County residents from practices & policies that threaten us, our friends, and our loved ones. We do this through consistent engagement with elected officials and local advocacy networks.
What is BURN?
BURN is a coalition of local organizations and volunteers that have come together out of concern for our neighbors and the impact of ICE on our communities. BURN meets monthly, on third Saturdays of the month at the First Unitarian Universalist Church (416 Franklin Street, Reading).
Learn more and share these handouts...
Is ICE actually active in Berks County?
In short, yes.
ICE agents are rounding up immigrants using a number of questionable, unethical tactics. Our Berks Prison and Sheriff's Office also hands over non-citizens who have a detainer request to ICE--even if that person is there for pre-trial or has been released on bond, parole, or had charges dismissed!
Collateral arrests happen when ICE enters a workplace or building looking for one, specific individual and decide to arrest multiple or all persons in the area, "just in case" they happen to be illegal immigrants.
Compliance traps are set when immigrants willingly comply with their legally-mandated compliance check-ins at the courthouse. ICE agents wait outside courthouses to "catch" people as they're just trying to follow immigration laws. These are just two examples of ways in which ICE activity makes our Berks neighbors afraid to go out in public - to work, school, church, doctor's offices, and parks.
ICE Detention in Berks & Schuylkill
ICE wasted $87.4 million buying an unused warehouse at 3501 Mountain Road in Upper Bern Township and $119.5 million on a closed distribution center in Tremont, Schuylkill County. ICE originally planned to convert the warehouses into prison camps, but changed their mind in June 2026. They are still withholding $800,000 in annual tax revenues from the townships and school districts there.
However, Berks County residents handed to ICE are getting shipped off to the Philadelphia Federal Detention Center, an ICE facility in York County at 1605 Clugston Road, or the Moshannon Detention Center in Clairmont County. People who used to live next to you are essentially being disappeared and trafficked so detention facilities can collect 'booking fees'.
Read more about the horrific realities of ICE detention centers in our blog post here.
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Need to reach out? Email us NoICEinBerks@proton.me
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