Local organizations plan ‘Peace Parade’ to protest plan to use Niagara Falls air base as deportation center
BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — Two local grassroots organizations are partnering to protest Rep. Nick Langworthy’s (NY-23) and Rep. Claudia Tenney’s (NY-24) recent request to U.S. defense secretary Pete Hegseth to use the Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station (NFARS) as an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deportation center.
WNY Peace Center and RootsAction said in a release from organizers Victory Ross and India Walton that they will take a stand and “vehemently protest” against the request with a Peace Parade on Feb. 23, planning to meet at the University at Buffalo’s South Campus at 2 p.m. and caravan to NFARS.
“The community is coming out to declare that we don’t want more deportation of our friends and neighbors,” the release said. “Nor do we want the 900 US military bases which are hugely expensive, polluting, and harmful to the local communities (including generating PTSD, moral injury, and making the area a target).”
The organizations’ suggestion for the base is installing a solar array to generate renewable energy.
Additional sponsors of the protest, per the release, include Jewish Voice for Peace Buffalo, Lincoln Memorial United Methodist Church, and We Are Women Warriors. The protest is part of a “Global Day of Action to #CloseBases.”
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