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Indian American senator joins push to curb ICE operations in Pennsylvania
The legislative package includes bills focused on three areas: protecting community spaces, restricting ICE tactics and local collaboration with immigration authorities, and creating pathways for justice and opportunity.
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Jeffin T. Kaleekal - Wed, 10, Jun 2026
- 01:42 EDT
- 45
State Senator Nikil Saval / Wikimedia commons
Pennsylvania State Sen. Nikil Saval rallied with his Democratic peers to demand ICE's removal from the state, calling ICE action "Trump's reign of terror."
As deportation and immigration enforcement action continues to surge in Pennsylvania and other parts of the country, dozens of legislators, advocates and community leaders gathered on the steps of Pennsylvania's Capitol to demand that the General Assembly and the commonwealth act swiftly to protect the safety of Pennsylvania's residents and communities.
One of the senators backing the call was Saval, a second-generation Indian American politician whose parents moved to the United States from Bengaluru before he was born.
Hitting out at the Trump administration, he said, "Generation after generation, people have arrived in Pennsylvania with the same aspirations: to build a future, to contribute to their community, and to create a better life for their loved ones. The opportunity to do so is one of our country's greatest strengths."
He continued, "Trump's reign of terror is expensive, unpopular, and at cross-purposes with a Pennsylvania in which everyone can thrive. Public resources should be invested in schools, health care, housing, and vibrant, accessible neighborhoods — not in expanding a deportation machine that tears families apart and undermines trust in our public institutions. This is why we're demanding ICE out of Pennsylvania."
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In response to the growing ICE action, state Democrats have come up with a series of legislative proposals that seek to rein in ICE action, ensuring that "sensitive community spaces like schools, hospitals, and polling locations are protected from ICE; that law enforcement activity is focused on community safety and that officers are accountable to those they serve; that opportunities for members of Pennsylvania's immigrant communities are expanded; and that when the rights of any Pennsylvanian are violated, they have a means for recourse through our justice system," the Democrats noted in a statement.
The move comes as the U.S. Congress is considering approving an additional $70 billion in funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol, which supporters say would expand the Trump administration's immigration enforcement efforts over the next three years. ICE already operates with a budget larger than any other federal law enforcement agency and exceeds the military budgets of many countries.
Highlighting the severity of their concerns, the Democrats noted that the number of Pennsylvanians detained by ICE last year was more than three times that of the year before.
"Since March 2025, more than 70 of my community members have been deported to Bhutan. Within 24 hours of their deportation, the government of Bhutan is expelling them to India and Nepal. Today, these deportees are stateless again. Some are missing, some are hiding, and some have died by suicide," said Robin Gurung, a board member of API PA and co-executive director of Asian Refugees United.
Gurung continued, "We cannot let ICE divide us. We cannot let ICE question our humanity. We cannot let ICE terrorize our schools, hospitals and our neighbors."
The legislative package includes bills focused on three areas: protecting community spaces, restricting ICE tactics and local collaboration with immigration authorities, and creating pathways for justice and opportunity.
Proposed measures include keeping ICE off state-owned property, protecting voting access, ensuring schools and colleges remain safe for students, limiting local involvement in immigration enforcement, addressing alleged federal abuses of power, and establishing an Office of New Pennsylvanians.
The bills are sponsored by a coalition of Pennsylvania state senators, including Nikil Saval, Amanda Cappelletti, Carolyn Comitta, Art Haywood, Tim Kearney, Katie Muth, Sharif Street and Lindsey Williams.
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