Faith communities hold press conference to talk about immigration and ICE

On Monday morning the group Together West Michigan held a Press Conference at a church in Grand Rapids to address an important topic – the violence that Immigration and Customs Enforcement is perpetrating against immigrant communities.

I was not able to attend this event, but I have read their statement and want to speak to that in particular.

The statement they released, and encouraged others to sign on to, is entitled, A Time for Light to Shine. Again, I am grateful that this group is making immigration, immigrants and ICE a public issue, especially since we have to examine and confront the non-stop terrorizing of immigrants by ICE in West Michigan and across the country.

Having said that I am a bit deflated and discouraged by their statement, which is rather vague and too tepid for what we know about ICE.  I write this critique of their statement because I know that immigrants, particularly undocumented immigrants need the faith community right now and right now they need to be bold.

Part of the Together West Michigan statement reads:

• We call on ICE and all of those working with ICE to be people of the light, operating in the daylight and removing masks.
• We call on ICE and all of those working with ICE to allow each person they encounter to shed light upon their status—those who have passed initial asylum interviews and await their day in court, those refugees who have resettled in this area, those who are black or brown and are subject to racial profiling.
• We call on ICE and all of those working with ICE to be caring light to families who may have one or more members who are undocumented.

These statements are not bad statements, but I believe that they are problematic in two ways. First, the call is to ICE and those working with ICE to be people of light. I understand the sentiment, but ICE and those collaborating with ICE are inherently systems of oppression, indeed they are an instrument of state carceral violence. This is why immigrants, immigrant justice groups and a growing number people across the country are calling for ICE to be abolished.

Second, the tone of these sentences centers ICE and their accomplices to be agents of change. It’s as if those who wrote this statement want ICE to simply be more humane and kind. This sentiment ignores the history of ICE, which was created after 9/11 with the specific intent to criminalize and terrorize undocumented immigrants.

Another section of the statement reads:

• We call on commissioners and legislators at the local, state and federal level to use their light to review and hold accountable actions that dehumanize our neighbors and fracture their families.
• We call on commissioners and legislators at the local, state and federal level to cast light on the racist actions that have extinguished the light of hope the United States’ resettlement program has provided to refugees around the world.
• We call on legislators at the state and federal level to remove obstacles to H1B (specialized workers) and F1 (student) visas so that these newcomers can shine their lights in ways that further not only their own skills, but advance our country.

Again, these statements are not bad statements, but they center politicians and not the affected communities. I acknowledge that there are some (few) elected officials at the local, state and federal level that have been appalled by the actions of ICE and other immigration policies, but the overwhelming majority of elected officials have voted for funding of ICE and bad and oppressive immigration policies.

A third section of the statement reads:

• We call on houses of worship to be the light they are called to be, casting light on evil and flooding our community with acceptance and goodwill.
• We call on houses of worship to be the light they are called to be, assisting those who are burdened, because of anti-immigrant propaganda and activity, with material, emotional, and spiritual support.
• We call on houses of worship to provide open doors and acceptance to those desperately in need of hope and sanctuary.

These sentences are more to the point, especially the last two lines, which provide concrete actions that houses of worship can take to practice solidarity with undocumented immigrants. Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE have a sanctuary team that is meeting with local faith communities to talk about offering sanctuary and what that looks like.

What we need from faith communities is to adopt the same kind of commitment that the Confessing Church did in Nazi Germany, which took a strong public stance against state violence and offered sanctuary and safe houses to Jewish people and other communities that were being targeted by the Hitler regime.

I was also disappointed that the statement did not include or encourage people of faith to join the campaigns that Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE have that is calling on the City of Grand Rapids and the Kent County government to adopt 6 sanctuary policies that would help reduce some of the violence that ICE is perpetrating in this community. These 6 sanctuary policies are concrete and come directly from the immigrant-led movement that Cosecha has been leading in this community since 2017.

The six sanctuary policies that Cosecha is demanding are:

• Policies restricting the ability of state and local police to make arrests for federal immigration violations, or to detain individuals on civil immigration warrants.
• Policies restricting the police or other county workers from asking about immigration status.
• Policies prohibiting “287(g)” agreements through which ICE deputizes local law enforcement officers to enforce federal immigration law.
• Policies that prevent local governments from entering into a contract with the federal government to hold immigrants in detention.
• Policies preventing immigration detention centers from being established in Kent County, which would include the use of the Kent County Jail as a detention facility for ICE.
• A policy that will not allow the Kent County Sheriff’s Department to share Flock camera images or any other information gathered by county staff with ICE or any other law enforcement agency seeking to arrest, detain and deport immigrants.

In this existential moment, where ICE agents are terrorizing immigrants by kidnapping them, detaining them and deporting them, faith communities could play a vital role in being part of the resistance to state violence.

Again, I write these words not as criticism, but as an invitation to be part of the resistance work that is so necessary in this community. Let’s be bold in our words and our actions, even if it means we take risks to our own well being. As Archbishop Oscar Romero reminds us, “We must not love our lives so much that we avoid taking risks in life that history calls for.” History is calling for it NOW!