Thread: Lights for Liberty immigration protests over border camps at 700 cities July 12

Lights for Liberty immigration protests over border camps planned at 700 cities July 12

Olivia Sanchez, USA TODAY
Published 9:46 a.m. ET July 12, 2019 | Updated 10:23 a.m. ET July 12, 2019


As undocumented immigrants brace for massive Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids expected to begin this weekend, advocates and concerned citizens around the country plan to call attention to the treatment of immigrants in detention centers through protests they call, “Lights for Liberty: A Vigil to End Human Concentration Camps.”

The vigils are planned in hundreds of cities for 7 p.m. local time on Friday, July 12. Big cities and small towns will participate, and there is at least one event planned in every state in the US as well was five continents. There are more than 700 events planned, including:

• El Paso, Texas
• San Diego, California
• Homestead, Florida
• Washington D.C.
• New York, New York
• Albuquerque, New Mexico
• Ashland, Oregon
• Chattanooga, Tennessee
• St. George, Utah
• Ann Arbor, Michigan
• Juneau, Alaska

"Lights for Liberty" was started by attorney Elizabeth McLaughlin and sponsors include the Women's March, the Center for Popular Democracy, the Black Movement Law Project, and others, according to its website.

In this July 9, 2019, photo, a staff member works in the infirmary, a series of tents, at the U.S. government's newest holding center for migrant children in Carrizo Springs, Texas. (Photo: Eric Gay, AP)


The vigils come amid reports of standing-room-only cells, infants going without diapers and outbreaks of shingles and other illnesses in detention facilities. This week, the U.S. received a strong call for improvement from the United Nations' human rights chief Michelle Bachelet:

“This should never happen anywhere.”

President Donald Trump said facilities were "beautifully run" last week after a government report was released documenting conditions. At least five children have died in Border Control custody, or after being released, since December, according to the Associated Press.


Organizers expect thousands to gather Friday evening in Washington, D.C., to “demand action from Congress to end concentration camps and impeach the president,” according to the website. The event will feature several speakers, including Rep. Norma Torres, D-Calif., who was born in Guatemala and immigrated to the United States at age five.

One D.C. organizer, Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of Lutheran Immigration & Refugee Service, fled Sri Lanka with her family when she was 9-months-old.

“I know the America that welcomed us feels different than the America I see in our detention operations along the border,” Vignarajah said. “This vigil is about reminding us of who we are.”

She said the vigils should be peaceful and send a message that America is a place of refuge, not imprisonment, for those seeking protection.

“This cause is personal to me and my organization. My daughter is the same age as the sweet little girl Valeria who drowned just a few weeks ago – and her death was a searing image of the desperation of the conditions we’re creating for children and parents,” Vignarajah said.

“All of them deserve to be treated as God’s children.”

In Oakland, California, high school administrator Lyndsey Schlax is organizing an educational event for kids and parents.

“Rather than being a silent vigil to send a message to the world, we are trying to engage kids and young people and families and teach them how to have conversations about what is going on in the world,” Schlax said.

Schlax, 38, said she wants kids to feel like they have concrete, actionable, achievable ways to make the situation better. She said they'll provide kids with plans and worksheets for setting up their own lemonade stands to benefit organizations like Immigrant Families Together.

There will also be a letter writing session, which was inspired by Schlax’s 7-year-old son, Emmett. Kids will write letters to their peers in detention camps, fold their letters into paper airplanes, and fly them over a fence set up at the event. Organizers will then gather all the letters, and give them to a member of Congress to distribute during a visit to the detention centers.

There are events and vigils planned in populous metro areas in red and blue states, but also in many small towns.

In Eau Claire, Wisconsin, organizers have planned a “Cacerolazo” protest, which is a Latin American tradition of banging pots and pans to raise awareness of an issue, said Jessie Crockett, an organizer for the event.

In Siloam Springs, Arkansas, Rev. Kaleb Graves, 22, said he will use scripture to call “white evangelicals” to action in the fight against unfair treatment in immigrant detention camps.

A recent Pew Research study found that more than two thirds of white evangelical protestants say the U.S. does not have a responsibility to accept refugees.

Graves disagrees: “Christianity, or any other religion, cannot simply be words and prayers without action."

There was some pushback about religious involvement at the event, Graves said — from both sides.

Some worried about excluding non-religious people, Graves said, but he said he hopes to make his message inclusive to all. Graves is affiliated with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship but he said he plans to read from Leviticus and Deuteronomy about how to treat foreigners and refugees. He said he won’t cater it to any specific religion.

Graves said others were concerned that his involvement would come off as "inappropriately politicizing" religion.
He said he doesn’t think this is the case, and plans to speak anyway.

“The message of Christianity, and religion in general, is that we should be protecting the most vulnerable in our society, but that has really been hijacked and changed,” Graves said.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...12/1709905001/

SEND IN THE ICE VANS!

WHERE IS THE "VIGIL" FOR ANGEL MOMS?

WHERE IS THE "VIGIL" FOR OUR VETERANS?

WHERE IS THE "VIGIL" FOR OUR HOMELSESS?

WHERE IS THE "VIGIL" FOR OUR SENIORS?

WHERE IS THE "VIGIL" FOR THE POOR AMERICANS?

Protests planned ahead of expected ICE raids in Chicago

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The threat of immigration raids looms over Chicago, with an enforcement operation expected to start Sunday.









By Diane Pathieu, Craig Wall and Will Jones

Updated 2 hours agoCHICAGO (WLS) -- The threat of immigration raids looms over Chicago, with an enforcement operation expected to start Sunday.

Officials across the city are speaking out, telling residents Chicago will not cooperate with ICE raids.


There were unconfirmed reports Friday that ICE has already been knocking on doors in the city, although there has been no word of any mass raids or arrests.

Senator Dick Durbin met Friday morning with immigrant support agencies and families, noting there is a lot of anxiety about the expected raids.

"They are living in fear of what is about to happen," Durbin said. "When the president announced mass arrests and the mass deportations he has sent this fear across America that is breaking the hearts of so many."

Video shot Friday morning by a homeowner's security camera in Chicago Lawn shows armed officers in blue uniforms that identified them as "police" asking for a woman with a Latino name and alias. The homeowner said he did not know anyone by that name. The homeowner could not be released.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced the city will not cooperate with any ICE raids and Governor JB Pritzker said the state will also not coordinate in any way with federal immigration officials.

Lightfoot also announced the city would provide $250,000 to the city's legal defense fund to help immigrants. She reiterated that ICE has been cut off from any police databases, and police will not provide them any assistance on immigration matters.

"We've been very clear about the fact that our police department is not going to participate, for sure, but also not to facilitate any raids that are going to be taking place," Lightfoot said.

Community organizations are briefing residents across the area in churches, schools and other places about their legal rights and how to handle ICE encounters. Faith groups said they will be doing their part to stand with those communities that are living in fear, and encouraged people to act to help protect people's rights if they see any ICE raids happening.

"You can witness, and what this means is you can get your phone out, put it on record, and you record every instance that's happening around you," said Pastor Beth Brown of Lincoln Park Presbyterian Church. "Many people's right are being violated."


"Please remember that you are not alone, you have all of us, a community of allies and networks that are here to support you," said Evelyn Venegas Cuzco of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. "Please don't forget that you are not alone."

The raids would pursue people with final deportation orders, including families whose immigration cases were fast-tracked by judges in 10 major cities such as Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and Miami.

Hundreds of demonstrations are planned in protest of the treatment of migrants at detention centers. They're being called Lights For Liberty rallies and will take place in Chicago and several other cities around the country.

Organizers want major changes made to the conditions at the migrant facilities.

ICE has issued a statement that it won't comment on details of "enforcement operations," and the White House has declined comment to ABC News.

WAUKEGAN TRIES TO EASE FEARS OF LARGE IMMIGRANT POPULATION


News of weekend ICE raids has rattled Latino communities in the Chicago area, and in Waukegan immigrant groups are trying to ease fears.






Waukegan has a large immigrant population, some of whom are living in fear of the federal raids.

"If they are not doing any harm, if they are not doing anything in the streets, if they are not breaking any laws, why should they get deported, especially if they have kids and the kids are United States citizens," said Ana Reyes.


Elvira Cantu, who is a manager at Las Vegas Hair Salon, said through a translator that the situation is sad and the salon is preparing for a drop in business. She believes some of their clients will be afraid to leave their homes.

Organizations and advocacy groups are standing by to help those who could be impacted by the raids.

The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) National Immigration Committee along with the Lake County Immigrant Advocacy said they are opening a command center with on-site support in Waukegan to teach people about their rights and to provide emergency assistance to families if their loved ones are taken away.

https://abc7chicago.com/protests-pla...icago/5390728/

"We will see a reign of terror inflicted upon our communities," said Julie Contreras of LULAC. "We will have children left alone in their homes when their parents, right here in the United States, are ripped out of their homes, only guilty of coming here for a better life."

Contreras asked the public to put pressure on lawmakers to protect immigrant families.

"We cannot stop making a call out to the senators and congressmen of this nation that should have already fixed these broken laws," she said.

"Unfortunately it is a very traumatizing experience. That's unfortunately how immigration acts, they don't see immigrants as humans and so they try to violate their rights. Sometimes it's difficult to remember we do have rights. We do have the right to remain silent. We are able to not sign anything and we are able to resist," said the Resurrection Project immigration organizer Laura Mendoza.

Chicago full of crime!

Where are the protests AGAINST illegal immigration from the African-Americans? You need to fight this battle too!

You people had better wake up because these illegals are taking YOUR jobs, getting paid more money, taking over your neighborhoods and the ARE suppressing you people!

They are overcrowding our schools and taking that from you too! There is NO budget for improvements if we are forced to pay for illegals in our schools.

Time to wake the hell up and be an American and fight for your own damn selves and stop listening to those Democrats who have kept you in poverty and suppressed you for decades!!!

Get your community together and help us stop this illegal immigration, stop refugees, stop TPS, stop asylum and stop dumping the whole world on our backs with their problems costing us BILLIONS of dollars!

$4.5 BILLION FOR DIAPERS AND AID FOR ILLEGAL ALIENS!!! OUTRAGES! MONEY THAT SHOULD BE SPENT ON OUR INNER-CITIES!!!

DEPORT THEM ALL AND TURN THEM AWAY AT OUR BORDER!

Anti-ICE protesters pull down American flag, raise Mexico flag