New anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) billboards in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, are drawing attention for their outspoken message about immigration enforcement operations in a county that Republicans won in 2024.
Positioned near the Amtrak station and along Prince Street, the signs read, “Without due process, it’s just kidnapping. ICE out of Lancaster.”
Newsweek has contacted the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for comment via email.
Why It Matters
In the 2024 presidential race, President Donald Trump secured a win over then Vice President Kamala Harris in Lancaster County, around 60 miles west of Philadelphia, earning 57.2 percent of the vote (166,261 ballots) compared to Harris’ 41.3 percent (120,119 ballots).
ICE is facing increased scrutiny as Trump’s administration enacts plans to deport millions of immigrants who do not have legal status. The agency’s expanded authority to carry out raids, including operations conducted in plain clothes and with face coverings, has prompted criticism from immigrant rights organizations, legal experts, and local communities, who question the legality, ethics, and human impact of these actions.
What To Know
The billboards, sponsored by the nonprofit Lancaster Stands Up and local activist Alison Moon, are intended to raise public awareness about immigration issues in the area.
Moon, who has been funding similar billboards for months, told WHP-TV that “the goal is to spread awareness and make sure that everyone knows this is happening and it’s real and it’s a problem.”
She told the outlet that there has been a significant response since the latest installations, which cost around $1,100 each. Moon initially distributed stickers, but opted for billboards to get her point across to residents.
“This has worked. None of my stickers got 55,000 views on threads overnight, but this did,” she said.
As the debate continues, Lancaster County finds itself at the center of a national conversation on immigration enforcement.
Scott Mechkowski, a retired ICE agent who worked for the agency from the mid-1990s until 2019, told Newsweek that Moon “possesses the unequivocal right to allocate personal funds toward billboards conveying her perspectives, but it does not inherently substantiate the claim.”
“The billboard’s inflammatory equation of ICE enforcement with ‘kidnapping’ is a dangerous falsehood that erodes institutional trust and sows division,” Mechkowski told Newsweek in a statement.
DHS has said that ICE agents are facing a 1,000 percent increase in assaults against them.
What People Are Saying
Retired ICE agent Mechkowski told Newsweek in a statement: “ICE has never kidnapped anyone; it adheres to legal frameworks ensuring due process in detentions. This narrative originated from a hoax, where a woman staged a fake abduction to solicit donations, resulting in federal charges for conspiracy and false statements, a fabrication exploited for its shock value, regardless of truth, which turned out to be a scam, but generated millions of clicks. It’s obvious Ms. Moon knows nothing about immigration law, nor law itself.”
Lancaster Stands Up wrote on a post on Facebook: “If you’re heading out of the city down Prince Street, you may have seen our new billboard collab with Alison Moon! We’ll all be safer when ICE is off our streets.”
Pennsylvania Representative Lloyd Smucker, a Republican, said: “The bottom line is we are a country. We are a country with a role [sic] of law, and there are laws in place about our immigration system and how to come here legally. ICE is doing its job, and so I think we should continue to support ICE as we have,” CBS 21 reported.
What Happens Next
The billboards are expected to remain in place for about a month.
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