Casa San José Takes on ICE in Pittsburgh

In Pittsburgh, MVP partner Casa San José has recruited 800 volunteers to defend immigrant families from the harm of sudden ICE crackdowns.

Through their Rapid Response Network, they have developed a pipeline that brings people in through immigration services and moves them into leadership development and rapid response as on-site witnesses to ICE’s kidnapping efforts throughout Western PA.

Photo: Casa San Jose

We received the following update from the Casa team, and wanted to share it in full:

When community members report immigration activity, volunteers mobilize within minutes: documenting enforcement actions, holding authorities accountable to the rule of law, and ensuring families are accompanied during and in the aftermath of interactions with ICE. This work does more than respond to emergencies — it builds trust and resilience, showing people that they are not alone when the government targets them.

One recent June evening illustrates the power of our Rapid Response Network.

As a Mexican restaurant in Gibsonia, PA was closing, a call came into Casa San José’s 24/7 ICE Watch Hotline reporting three unmarked vehicles near a nearby apartment complex.

A volunteer responded within minutes, and as her instincts led her to the plaza where the restaurant was located, she soon saw the vehicles positioned at the entrances and exits. While she called Casa San José’s community defense organizer, a local police officer drove into the plaza and pulled her over, saying he had received a report of a “suspicious Prius.” Their brief, cordial exchange ended with a chuckle and without incident, and moments later, eight more volunteers arrived. Together, they calmly walked the plaza, taking notes and observing.

As the volunteers’ presence grew, one vehicle approached and its occupants identified themselves as FBI agents before leaving. Others lingered until the volunteers called a local news outlet. When a cameraman arrived and began filming, the cars departed one by one.

“I don’t know you, and you don’t know me or my brother. But you and your friends showed up tonight to protect him. And I hope God blesses you abundantly for that. Because tonight, you have loved your neighbor as yourself.”

That night, nine restaurant employees — who had been hiding in the kitchen in fear — were able to walk home safely. An organizer who was at the incident received a call from a sibling of one of those workers, who said through tears: “I don’t know you, and you don’t know me or my brother. But you and your friends showed up tonight to protect him. And I hope God blesses you abundantly for that. Because tonight, you have loved your neighbor as yourself.”

In a polarized, divided, post-truth society, flashy graphics and traditional tactics aren’t enough to meet today's moment. Casa San José is leaning into what we know best: being human with one another, seeing people fully in their dignity, and sitting in the wound with folks as a neighbor during their moments of deepest vulnerability. The Casa team witnessed this to be a transformative organizing practice—it has led to a dynamic, exponential, and replicable model.

Through this work, we are shifting the culture of organizing. Instead of treating immigration enforcement as an occasional headline to respond to, we are proactively building a sustainable and scalable community infrastructure of care, solidarity, and self-empowerment. In less than six months, over 800 community members across Allegheny County have signed on to actively join in our fight for a tomorrow we all can believe in.

Our model creates a foundation that strengthens every movement for justice: in a time where it is easy to feel hopeless, the witness of direct collective action on the part of ordinary people breeds belief in their own power. When neighbors bear witness to injustice, they become the strongest of advocates in their own communities, intensively multiplying our reach. And by leaning into our humanity, every rapid response call becomes a moment of leadership development; every family supported becomes a partner in organizing; and every act of community defense strengthens the capacity for broader fights around housing, labor, and the democracy we are all called to protect.

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Learn more about Casa San José and their urgently needed work here.