Aug. 13 Vigil at Newport Beach City Hall. Photo: Pat McCaughan.
On a recent Thursday at noon, 20 or more “godmothers” gathered outside Newport Beach City Hall, pink bandanas tied around their necks, carrying signs proclaiming: “We are Women of Faith: Praying for the Disappeared.”
Each Thursday, the women gather at a pre-determined site in Orange County, to pray and sing to show support for the immigrant community and to give voice to the suffering of those whose family members have been arrested or detained by federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
Other signs bear images and a brief description of those taken by the ICE agents:
“Andry Hernandez Romero: Makeup artist in California.
Mahmoud Khalil: University grad in New York.
Heidy Sanchez: Mother in Florida.”
The Rev. Monica Corsaro at the Aug. 13 Vigil. Photo: Pat McCaughan.
“There are conversations with people around our country and when you say disappeared, they go, no, no, no, that’s not what’s happening. Have you had any of those conversations?” the Rev. Monica Corsaro, pastor of Costa Mesa’s Fairview Community Church, addressed the gathering on Aug. 13.
“I keep having them,” Corsaro said. “We have to keep having those conversations because it does seem unreal that we live in a country where people are being disappeared, and then we have to explain what disappeared means. And I explain that those of us that have been doing court, court reporting, court witnessing, court observing, you literally watch someone walk out a door and there are six to twelve ICE agents, and they get disappeared down an exit and into a van.
“So, please tell people that you know this is indeed happening in the United States of America, and this is why we’re here; here next week, and the week after, and the week after, until we’re no longer needed.”
All genders are invited to join the women-led vigils, a part of Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice, or CLUE’s “Summer of Resistance,” according to Betsy Densmore, a member of St. John the Divine Episcopal Church in Costa Mesa. Densmore volunteers as both an immigration court observer and a vigil organizer.
The Summer of Resistance is a coalition of unions, immigration justice organizations, houses of worship, and faith and community leaders, coming together to raise awareness and to resist the federal administration’s assault on Los Angeles immigrant communities. Earlier this year, National Guard and U.S. Marine troops were deployed, against the protest of local leaders, sparking civil unrest in Los Angeles. The marines were withdrawn after about a month.
Similar vigils are held on Tuesdays at noon at various sites throughout Los Angeles County, said Jennifer Coria, a CLUE organizer and member of Grace ELCA Church in Bell, California, where her mother is a pastor. “We are trying to raise awareness of the vigils and to get more people involved,” Coria said.
Betsy Densmore at the Aug. 13 vigil. Photo: Pat McCaughan.
Although government officials have contended the deportations are focused on removal of individuals with criminal convictions, a recent Cato Institute study indicates otherwise, Densmore said. “Of all 204,000 ICE arrests from October to June, … only 10% of those arrested had been convicted of any violent or property crimes.
“The vast majority of detentions taking place are of law-abiding workers, entrepreneurs, caring parents, whose only crime is that they got lost in the labyrinth of our overwhelmed, archaic immigration system,” she said. “Immigrants, permanent residents and U.S. citizens, are being swept up, roughed up, denied their civil rights, and banished to detention centers where food, water, toilets and bedding are inhumanely lacking.”
While many of the undocumented are from Mexico, Densmore told the gathering, “They are also from Vietnam, Iran, Haiti, Russia and many other countries. No one is safe. This fight is about whether we live in a country where anyone can be taken without warning and without rights.”
The recent budget approved by Congress and signed into law in July, rather than offering solutions, concentrates instead on criminalization, she said. It increases spending, “to provide $170 billion for cracking down, including $26 billion for completing some border wall, $45 billion for new detention centers, enabling over 115,000 beds and $40 billion for hiring 10,000 new ICE agents.”
Kathie Killen, a member of St. George’s Episcopal Church in Laguna Hills, told The Episcopal News the pink bandanas are worn by the vigil-keepers, in resonance with Latin American women-led protest movements.
The pink bandanas were particularly related to the Ni Una Menos movement, or “Not One (woman) Less”, a grassroots feminist movement originating in Argentina, that spread across Latin America, according to Wikipedia. The movement aimed to combat violence against women. The use of the color pink symbolized outrage against gender violence and the lack of response from authorities and to represent the lives of women lost to such violence.
The vigil also echoed 1960s civil rights marches, as participants sang together the African American spiritual and protest song, signifying resilience, perseverance, and unwavering determination in the face of adversity, “We Shall Not Be Moved … like a tree planted by the water … struggling together …. We shall not be moved.”
“I ask you from my cell: … Where are you? Say my name, and please don’t forget your dear undocumented siblings,” Joyce Swaving, a member of St. George’s, Laguna Hills, read a poem she authored. “I am not a criminal, a gang member, the instigator of this battle. I am a member of your community. Invite me to laugh with you again, on this very corner.”
Roughly one-third, or a million, of Orange County’s some 3-million residents are immigrants, Densmore said. “Almost 70% of undocumented residents have been here for more than a decade. This is a country and a county which were and continue to be built by immigrants. They are our families, our coworkers, our neighbors, our friends.
“We must continue to respond with love, standing for our neighbors and friends, while also inviting immigration judges, local law enforcement, ICE agents and others into a right relationship with their community. We must speak out against these illegal and inhumane activities by pressuring Congress and federal agencies to respect and accommodate lawful immigrants, and by assisting local efforts to protect our neighbors. Volunteers throughout Orange County are on the ground with advocacy, food assistance and court accompaniment. If you have not done so already, we invite you to join us.”
For more information, visit: https://www.cluejustice.org/category/orange-county/
Vigils are also held weekly on Tuesdays, from 12 – 1 p.m. at the Los Angeles Federal building 300 N. Los Angeles St., Los Angeles.