Jaime Martinez’s eight-day walk from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Pittsburgh’s South Side to the agency’s detention center in Clearfield County will take him through Monroeville, Apollo and Indiana.
The march envisioned by Martinez, executive director of immigrant advocacy group Frontline Dignity, will start about 8 a.m. Sunday following a news conference.
Frontline Dignity aims to “draw attention to immigrant detention, the crisis of dignity facing immigrant communities and the urgent need for solidarity, organizing and action across Pennsylvania,” the group said.
The planned stops along Martinez’s roughly 130-mile route to the Moshannon Valley Processing Center were announced Saturday.
The first leg of the journey will take Martinez from the South Side to Monroeville, a roughly 13-mile, five-hour walk. On Monday, he’ll trek 22 miles over eight hours from Monroeville to Apollo. After covering 24 miles in nine hours Tuesday, Martinez will have a “community dinner” at Lemoona House Restaurant in Indiana.
Stops after that include Northern Cambria, Loretto, Tyrone, Osceola Mills and finally Philipsburg, home of the largest immigrant detention center in the Northeast. Frontline Dignity will hold a closing news conference and vigil for those in custody April 12 by the facility.
Martinez expects to be joined by other immigrant rights activists, faith leaders and community members. Anyone is welcome to join the walk, which was inspired by the famed marches of the Civil Rights Movement in the American South.