People come to Port Chester for one of two things: food and entrainment. Getting to Port Chester, you would need to hop on the Metro North New Haven Line and boom, the train stop takes right to the middle of town. Here you are greeted with two options, head down to Main St where you could find a variety of restaurants or head up Westchester Ave and go to the Capitol Theater… and more restaurants. Assuming you are here to see a performance, you ignore the first option and head straight up to the theater. After a long and exhausting 2 minute walk, you are greeted with a long line. Looks like your going to be stuck there for a while and how convenient, you are closer to the place where I wanted you to be. From your right, you are would be able to see a church with gothic architecture and a sign reading “St. Peter’s Episcopal Church”.
Wow, you wonder, what does this place have to do with your show. Well, nothing at all, but you have some time to kill so why not learn something for once instead of spending an hour flipping between checking the time and refreshing <insert Social Media> in hopes of finding some memes.
After the election of Donald Trump, the undocumented community in the nation went into high alert. Throughout the news after the election, reports of families being separated and the increase presence of ICE in cities caused unrest. In Port Chester, there exists a large undocumented population along with a large Latino population.
In in summer of 2017, a proposal came to the Port Chester Police Department from ICE. The pay for three police officers would be provided, however, in exchange the PCPD would have to provide information to ICE. At the news of this proposal, a large amount of the community came together to show their disapproval of this proposal. The site of this meeting was the St. Peter’s Episcopal Church. The community of St. Peter’s brought it upon themselves to give people the chance to speak for themselves and make their voice heard to the representatives of the PCPD.
If you didn’t realize it before, Port Chester is home to a large Latino population. Hell, you’re outside right now, look around and see how many things are in Spanish. Heck, even look to your right, boom South American corner store. This ins’t just the Latino part of town bud, it’s most of this place. Along with this Latino population, Port Chester is home to many undocumented immigrants. If you came to visit Port Chester in the early morning, you would be able to see a good number of Lantino men getting ready to work and wait by the
The meeting took place on the 29th of June, a week before the next town meeting where the decision would be made. A good amount of people came together to voice their opinion to on what would happen if the agreement was passed. The community meeting also gave the PCPD a chance to show their commitment to the community where Police Chief Conway gave them reassurance that they would turn down ICE’s proposal. This promise came to fruition in the next town meeting where the board of trustees announced that they were going to reject ICE’s proposal.
At this meeting, people were given the chance to talk about the subject matter. The majority of people who spoke gave gratitude to the board and spoke on how this action goes a long way in supporting the community. While this is a victory in helping support the undocumented community in Port Chester, the people in St Peter’s continue to demonstrate that the fight continues. St. Peter’s is used as a site where people could come and show their support in the form of protest. Sometimes, when walking down Westchester Ave, you could catch a group of them holding signs and saying out load their support of Dreamers and the status of DACA.
Works Citied:
“Port Chester Rejects Plan to Have PD Work with ICE.” News 12 Westchester, 5 July 2017, westchester.news12.com/story/35816558/officials-reject-plan-to-have-port-chester-pd-work-with-ice.
userwh15. “Port Chester Dice No a ICE.” Westchester Hispano, 12 Sept. 2017, www.westchesterhispano.net/noticias/port-chester-dice-no-ice/.
