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The “ICE Out” movement continues to gain traction in cities and towns across the U.S., including in Philadelphia, where city officials passed bills restricting immigration enforcement and community advocates are pushing for protections for fans and tourists attending FIFA World Cup games and festivities.
But anti-ICE efforts have been active for over a year on the ground in Philly, with residents embracing the city’s long tradition of blending art, activism and community-building.
It’s a tradition that the U.S. Department of Arts and Culture – a national advocacy group launched in 2013, not an actual government agency – made sure to include in their latest campaign, “No ICE in the Cup.”
The group’s Philly street poster, designed by local printmaker and artist Peri Law, depicts a World Cup trophy that resembles a classic Greek vase and incorporates the Philly skyline, images of ICE officers and a multiracial coalition of residents at local protests – set against the backdrop of a soccer goal net made of chain link topped with barbed wire.
It joins other posters commissioned from artists in each of the 11 cities in the U.S. that are hosting World Cup games including New York, Boston, Miami, Kansas City, Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, Los Angeles and Seattle.
As Carol Zou, cultural organizer with the USDAC who is also a former Philly resident and community leader, told Billy Penn, the group’s campaign plugs into existing anti-ICE infrastructure in local communities that have been doing the work already.
“The No ICE in the Cup campaign came about because many people in the U.S. were moved to take action against the presence of ICE in our cities and communities,” Zou said.
On the vibrant Philly art ecosystem and loose artist collectives, Zou, who once worked as director of programs at Asian Arts Initiative, notes “What isn’t special about Philly? I really love that Philly has so many artists who are engaged in using their artwork for social change. Philly has artists [who] can serve as that valuable bridge between organizing priorities and narrative change artwork.”
What USDAC offers participating cities in the campaign, they said, is “digital connections to people in other cities – how people can be using their art to fight our current wave of fascism.”
For Law, the opportunity to create the Philly poster for No ICE in the Cup was a natural continuation of her work as both an artist and youth programs coordinator with Asian Americans United.
She had already created a popular design of a Lunar New Year Fire Horse surrounded by flames and melting ice, with the words ‘ICE MELTS UNDER FIRE” that she prints as stickers and posters to fundraise for AAU’s Communities In Solidarity Fund that supports immigrant families in Philly who are affected by detention.
“I was hosting an ICE Out printing event at Soapbox and a person asked about my art and said Carol is looking for someone based in Philly. The [art prompt] was to say “ICE Out of the World Cup” or “No ICE” and to make connections between what is happening in your city with what is going on nationally as well.”
“ICE hasn’t been as prevalent in Philly probably because of the U.S. 250th birthday because they don’t want bad press in Philly ahead of a national event and international event,” Law said of her design inspiration. “So I kind of wanted to highlight, ‘what are people doing?’ There are still people protesting every day, ICE Watch [participants] getting arrested outside to make a stand. I wanted to make a connection that Pennsylvania has the largest detention center in the Northeast. Our state holds so many people who are detained.”
Working together to reclaim space
Reclaim Philly is among the many local collectives using art as a form of protest and solidarity. During the summer of 2025, the group waged a successful letter-writing campaign to get beloved Germantown cafe owner Anovsack ‘Anou’ Vongbandith out of the Moshannon Detention Center. Now, the self-organizing, decentralized group helps support and empower artists.
Among those artists are Alison Zeidman and Timothy Prettyman, a South Philly couple who created a mass-producable design that allows people to DIY their own window signs showing solidarity with immigrant neighbors.
“We came up with a message that started with ‘We all live here’ and have a few different taglines,” said Zeidman, who is a comedian and writer. “Tim had the idea of using this quilt motif as an element of the design to emphasize the idea of unity and neighborhood solidarity.”
Prettyman, an artist who usually works in paint, said that while he’s never quilted, the idea of “joining pieces that don’t necessarily look like they’re gonna fit together, but when you put them together, it makes a solid, cohesive design” seemed appropriate.
It’s also “a nice way for people who are from different parts of Philly to sit down and make a design of their own, but it’s all uniform in the end.”
“This is the first time I’ve done some kind of political or timely messaging,” Prettyman added, saying he grew up inspired by political art from the pre-WWII era up through the Cold War. “It kind of really sparked something in me that this might be something going forward that i do on a more regular basis because it’s necessary, people respond to it, and it’s hard to not put some kind of messaging in your work now because everything is just so urgent and so upfront.”
On the power of art to convey messages, Zeidman, who has written for “Full Frontal with Samantha Bee” and “Adam Ruins Everything,” said she “always love[s] a funny protest sign. People get really creative and clever. I think that that kind of stuff is not frivolous. It’s whatever gets people engaged, whatever grabs attention.”
“Philly is a sign town. Every block, there’s always a handwritten sign in somebody’s window or on their stoop, saying ‘don’t throw trash out here,’ but you stop and read it,” Prettyman said. “The idea behind this is we want people to look at these signs and stop. And go ‘I know I agree with this messaging’ It’s positive, it’s uplifting.”
Art as communication beyond party politics
Art educator Mitch Wiesen shares the sentiment, noting that “action cannot exist without design and oftentimes design cannot exist without action.”
“During the previous wave of anti-ICE protest work in 2017, I was involved with Abolish ICE Philadelphia, Occupy City Hall, and designed a zine at the time and posters back then,” they said. But “it can be really difficult to organize and mobilize people under democratic leadership. I think people can have a really difficult time sometimes equating the things they so vehemently oppose with things Democrats are supporting and abetting as well.”
Now, “with widespread anti-ICE sentiment, it felt like a really important time to use the skills I have as a designer and citizen of Philadelphia to spread the most important information.”
That’s why Wiesen, a graphic designer who also works as an adjunct at Temple, created a 26×40 inch print design available free through Four Fingers Press. The design visualizes eyes looking out from windows in a communal act of witness, above a variation of the post-9/11 “If you see something, say something” message, and lists the phone number for Juntos’ Raid Response Hotline.
“Design is so much about communication. My goal with this piece was to communicate an idea that Philadelphia is a tightly knit city, with tightly packed rowhomes on often narrow streets [where] someone is almost always peeking out their windows to see what’s going on – an important element of what makes Philly community oriented, can keep Philly safe in times like this.
Wiesen says they “hope the average person sees that and thinks ‘yeah, we do keep an eye out,’ but also that ICE agents see the poster and think twice about what they’re planning to do – this city is watching them and we are going to hold them to that standard.”
And, they add, “I hope immigrants see that poster and see that [we] stand up for our immigrant neighbors and community members.”
Street art, by and for the people
Philadelphia’s street artists have also been getting creative with messaging against ICE.
Artist Make it Weird created a protest sign with musician Huston West that mimics the blue and yellow historic markers you can find around Philadelphia with the city’s official seal on top.
“Monday, February 16th, 2026 at 8:45 a.m. at this location, a man was kidnapped by federal ICE agents,” the sign reads. “Likely a food delivery driver, he parked in the handicap zone, with hazard lights on, a foot from the curb, clearly not expecting to stay long. Clearly not expecting to be kidnapped.”
The sign was placed outside of the Federal Courthouse Sixth and Market streets.
“I designed that sign and I hit up Make It Weird,” West told BP in March. “They tweaked the design a little, made the sign, came over the next day and installed it.”
“The idea [was to create] a series of these things that help people to remember that this is happening and not be able to look away,” Make it Weird said. “It’s the largest sticker I’ve ever made. … It’s 23 inches wide, 11 inches high.”
You may know Make it Weird for their viral SEPTA bus signs around the city — the unofficial solar-powered signs that let you know when the bus is arriving. (A service the city finally began rolling out in May.)
While they create service-driven art and more light-hearted pieces, they have been gaining recognition for their protest art, which they started making after attending an anti-fascist event at the Flashpoint Community and Gallery space.
“I attended a couple events there, and I noticed that they had on the table those cards from the Immigrant Legal Resource Center,” Make it Weird said. “I live in a neighborhood where I know that a lot of my neighbors may be worried about this stuff.”
Make it Weird creates signs in both English and Spanish informing people of their rights during an ICE raid, including “No tiene que abrir la puerta” or “You do not have to open the door.”
Artist Praise Dobler, a collaborator of Make it Weird’s, has also been creating signs with anti-ICE messaging.
The artist is known for his lighter fare, stickers with the face of St. Louis Cardinals football guard Conrad Dobler. Lately, however, Dobler too has been leaning into more political content.
“In the past couple months, I’ve definitely been putting out more explicitly f— ice type stuff,” thee said. (Praise Dobler goes by thee pronouns.) “And recently not even adding the Praise Dobler thing on it, just taking stickers and… flood as much of that message out in the streets as I can.”
The idea is to give people a reminder that they are not alone.
“Look up Resistance Ephemera,” Dobler said. “He’ll put [anti-facist messaging] on sticker material called eggshell material, where it’s really hard to get rid of the sticker. It just comes off in little chips. So people will scratch his one sticker, and they’ll find another… It’ll be 20 scratch stickers lined up. And just, it’s a back and forth. It’s a battle with the Karens and the chuds in the world.”
Praise Dobler said that anyone can step up when it comes to creating street art and finding common ground.
“If you’re feeling some kind of way during everything that’s going on in this country and in the world politically, then just connect with your neighbors and find like-minded people,” thee said. “Help put that message out that you’re not alone and that you don’t have to deal with all this.”
And even if you don’t agree with their artwork, Dobler appreciated the city of Philadelphia for being a space that is safe and open to messaging like his.
“I thought a lot about [Isaiah] Zagar dying,” thee said. “Some of the imagery and choices that are used can be a little raunchy or evocative in his work. But, you know, rather than just dismiss it out of hand or report it to 311, have it removed, I think people are just a lot more accepting of public art and rogue installations here than they are in other parts of the world.”
Philly art on the world stage
With thousands of visitors from around the world expected to visit Philly – the “Mural Capital of the World”! – over the next several weeks and months, some artists say this is also an opportunity to communicate not just with fellow Philadelphians, but with neighbors from other countries.
“With the World Cup and America 250, I know a lot of people are staying home in their home countries and not coming here. It completely makes sense; I’d probably do the same thing,” said Katie Dempsey, a graphic designer and collaborator on Collide Zine, which co-hosted an anti-ICE fundraiser to support Juntos’ work with local families earlier this week at Tattooed Mom.
Dempsey has started making small wooden ‘F– ICE’ buttons to sell at street fairs.
“As a Jewish person, I really can see a direct comparison between what’s happening now and what was happening maybe in 1920s, 1930s Germany [when] this was my relatives being treated the same exact way as what’s happening now,” she said. “It matters very much to me as someone who has the kind of privilege where I probably will not be harassed specifically by ICE. I feel like it’s my responsibility to do something to defend the people who are being unfairly harassed by ICE and by certain elements of today’s society that are not as open-minded as I would like to think we should be at this point.”
“America is not safe right now, especially for immigrants. I’m a little ashamed of our country right now, but I’m trying to do my little tiny part to make it a little bit better and to let people of other cultures, countries and ethnicities know that a lot of people in America consider them welcome here,” she said. “I don’t want them to feel like the average American doesn’t want people of other countries to come here.”
Collide Zine collaborator Lindsey Gill agreed, stating that “as artists, it’s almost our responsibility to express that in ways that are different than the mainstream media. There’s so much AI art now and misinformation being spread. The local artists that are really candid with people with their art, blatantly saying this is coming from people experiencing it first hand – children of immigrants, people that have seen their neighbors taken away by ICE, first-hand, especially here in South Philadelphia.”
