Details remain hazy after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation ended with 13 people arrested on Good Friday at a driver’s license center near Kittanning.
Jason Koontz, a Department of Homeland Security spokesman, said ICE was called by East Franklin police after “concerned citizens reported an abnormally large amount of individuals” outside the center.
The detained people are in the U.S. illegally, according to Koontz, and come from countries including Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan. He said one of them resisted arrest and assaulted a law enforcement officer.
But PennDOT says the dozens of people at the facility Friday were current holders of non-domiciled commercial learner’s permits or driver’s licenses who sought to update medical forms.A spokesperson would not speculate about why the West Kittanning Center saw an increase in demand that day.
The agency said it issues driver’s licenses to “lawfully present individuals” through its use of the federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database. But it has paused issuing, or reissuing, non-domiciled CDLs since September following federal directives.
“PennDOT remains steadfast in following state and federal law, and there is no activity or transaction occurring at West Kittanning or elsewhere that violates state or federal law,” an agency statement read.
That has left state Rep. Abby Major, R-Ford City, confused. She’s looking into the incident.
“If these people were illegal immigrants, how did they get CDLs?” Major said.
ICE did not immediately respond to TribLive inquiries Tuesday.
What neighbors saw
Among concerned neighbors was Gary Klingensmith, who lives across the street from the center.
He said he noticed tractor-trailer trucks begin to arrive in the driver’s license center earlier in the week before dozens of people appeared Friday.
“I didn’t hear anyone speaking English,” Klingensmith said.
He said he attempted to call ICE when he noticed the men, but he couldn’t reach anyone at the agency. He later contacted a friend with connections to ICE, he said.
Videos circulating on social media show people filming the men as they wait in line and asking where they’re from.
Before ICE agents arrived, Klingensmith said, several state police cruisers drove slowly around the center before departing. That seemed to spook several of the waiting men, who left soon after, he said.
In response to a TribLive inquiry about whether troopers were present at the center, Trooper Bertha Cazy said state police were “not involved” and directed inquiries to ICE.
Aside from the unusually busy atmosphere, Klingensmith said, the waiting men weren’t doing anything that was cause for alarm before ICE arrived.
But when agents appeared at the center in the early afternoon, he said, the men scattered.
Some ran through his yard as they fled from ICE, Klingensmith said.
Brigitte Hepler, who also lives near the center, said she, too, had been attempting to reach ICE after her husband, Darin, noticed the busy parking lot Friday morning.
“There were too many red flags,” she said. “It made you alert.”
Several men whom she called “illegals” dispersed throughout the nearby West Kittanning neighborhood, leading to a chaotic scene as ICE agents canvassed the area and some men who had been waiting at the center sped through the residential streets.
She said she watched ICE agents detain two men who had been hiding near her yard and she helped agents with the local geography because some men were hiding on a nearby hillside.
Before ICE arrived, Hepler said, the men were mostly just standing around.
Hepler takes issue with online accusations that she and her neighbors were “racist” in their efforts to get federal authorities involved.
“It has nothing to do with race,” she said. “We were being protective.”
Armstrong County Sheriff Frank Pitzer said his office hasn’t received any reports of further activity related to Friday’s incident.
Pitzer said he doesn’t believe ICE agents have returned to the area since then.
East Franklin police Chief Jason Hufhand did not respond to TribLive inquiries.