{"id":134568,"date":"2025-08-10T14:43:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-10T14:43:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/134568\/"},"modified":"2025-08-10T14:43:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-10T14:43:08","slug":"hundreds-rally-in-support-of-germantown-cafe-owner-held-by-ice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/134568\/","title":{"rendered":"Hundreds rally in support of Germantown cafe owner held by ICE"},"content":{"rendered":"

From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to cover? Let us know!<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

Community members, activists and family members gathered Saturday outside Das Good Cafe<\/a> in Germantown to show solidarity and rally in support of owner Anovsack \u201cAnou\u201d Vongbandith, who was detained by federal immigration officials last month.\n<\/p>\n

Vongbandith\u2019s wife, Ahn, told Resolve Philly that on July 28, her husband was detained by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and is currently being held at the Moshannon Valley Processing Center<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

Protesters brought signs and chanted \u201cWho\u2019s our neighbor? Anou\u2019s our neighbor\u201d and \u201cCare not cages.\u201d Some attended because they knew Vongbandith. Many, like Chris Hoepner, came because they wanted to fight back against deportation efforts.\n <\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea that they can, you know, they arrest people that have been living here and fighting for their rights,\u201d Hoepner said. \u201cWe have to stand up for immigrants no matter where they\u2019re from.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

He was hopeful, however, that the rally could lead to a positive outcome.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had amnesties that we\u2019ve won in the past,\u201d Hoepner said. \u201cSo I think it\u2019s totally realizable.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Dozens of speakers, including Vongbandith\u2019s wife Ahn, state Sen. Art Haywood and state Rep. Chris Rabb, local advocacy groups and Rev. Greg Holston, addressed the gathering.
\n\"\"State Rep. Chris Rabb speaks at a rally for Anovsack \u201cAnou\u201d Vongbandith, who was detained by federal immigration officials last month. (Nate Harrington\/WHYY)\n<\/p>\n

Holston called out what he termed as the hypocrisy of the \u201cAmerican dream in today\u2019s context,\u201d saying that \u201cif we\u2019re really about that, then we have to stand with Anou.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Vongbadith came to the U.S. when he was 5, fleeing Laos with his parents to escape the communist regime. He was on his way to citizenship, but ran into legal troubles when he and his wife were accused of sexual misconduct, which resulted in Vongbandith\u2019s children being removed from their custody, as reported by Resolve Philly<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

His wife previously said that Vongbadith was in custody while his kids were in foster care, so the plea deal was given as the fastest way out. Vongbadith would continue checking in with ICE every six months while he remained in the country, according to Heyward.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cLike so many others before him, Anou took a plea,\u201d Ahn said. \u201cWhen your resources are drained, when you\u2019re exhausted, and when you want this nightmare to end, you just take what you think is the only way out.\u201d\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":134569,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5132],"tags":[5229,37211,76602,1448,2830,1311,2065,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-134568","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-germantown","10":"tag-immigrant-detention","11":"tag-pa","12":"tag-pennsylvania","13":"tag-philadelphia","14":"tag-u-s-immigration-and-customs-enforcement","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-united-states-of-america","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115005004526693181","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134568\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}