USA: Hundreds in El Paso march and vigil calling for end to mass deportations and detention

Image: Hope Border Institute

Bishop Mark J Seitz of the Diocese of El Paso, the Hope Border Institute, Estrella del Paso and local community organizations held a March and Vigil for Human Life and an End to Mass Deportations in Downtown El Paso. yesterday.

The day began with Mass presided by Bishop Evelio Menijvar (Auxiliary Bishop of Washington) for the feast day of Saint Oscar Romero. A delegation of bishops and national leaders in the migrant ministry then visited Ciudad Juárez for a meeting with Juarez Bishop J. Guadalupe Torres Campos as well as migrants affected by the ongoing asylum restrictions and staff from Jesuit Refugee Services Mexico.

Hundreds of people from El Paso and across the country, including individuals who had traveled from North Carolina, Minnesota and California, among other states, joined together for a night of witness, testimony and prayer, which included a rally, march and vigil around downtown El Paso. The vigil and march included a procession of images of the individuals killed by immigration enforcement or in detention in El Paso and across the country.

Drawing parallels to the words of Saint Oscar Romero - whose relic was present at the march - Bishop Evelio Mejivar, Auxiliary Bishop of Washington, the first and only Salvadoran-born bishop in the United States, said during the Vigil: "In his last Sunday homily on the day before he was killed, Saint Óscar Romero made a special appeal to government agents: 'I order you in the name of God: stop the repression' [...] "Esto es lo mismo que decimos y exigimos hoy. Cese la represión." ["This is the same as what we say and demand today. Stop the repression."] "Enough of injustice, inhumanity but also, enough of so much indifference. It is time to wake up. It is time to unite, to come together. Sin miedo, con valor, con fe." ["Without fear, with strength and with faith."]

Most Rev. Brendan J. Cahill, Bishop of Victoria, TX and Chairman of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) Migration Committee stated, "God is the author of every life. God does not forget anyone. And because you are walking today, everyone knows there is someone walking with them. Not just here at the border, but across the United States, north of the border and south of the border."

Dylan Corbett, Executive Director of the Hope Border Institute, framed the march as a call to action. "Why do we march? Because when we raise our voices, when we reach out in faith, when we march together to that place where God is leading us, on the way to immigration reform, when we march with justice as our compass, and hope as our crown and love as our goal, when we put one foot in front of the other, no one will stop us."

"When I started this work over 18 years ago, we had 700 detention beds in El Paso," said Melissa Lopez, Executive Director of Estrella del Paso. "As of August, we have 7,000 detention beds in the El Paso region. We have become ICE's detention capital of the world. We do not want to be known as the community where more people are detained - where people do not get basic information about their rights, do not receive the basic legal representation they are entitled to and that they deserve as human beings. We are becoming stronger as a community that is going to continue to oppose mass deportation and mass detention."

Bishop Mark J Seitz, Bishop of El Paso, who earlier this month released a pastoral letter on mass detention and mass deportations reiterated this call. "We are coming together to pray and to show our community's concern. We hope it moves our leaders to think: 'maybe we've gone too far.' Nearly seventy percent of the people detained have no criminal record. It is a grave injustice to lock up people who did what was necessary to survive and care for their family. We do not agree with this process of mass detention. [...] We hope actions like this will stir the conscience of people and realize that these people who are threatened right now are their neighbours, and if they are Christians, these people are their brothers and sisters."

Watch a Livestream Recording of the Rally, March and Vigil:
www.facebook.com/watch/live/?ref=watch_permalink&v=832619999865724

LINKS

Diocese of El Paso: www.elpasodiocese.org.

The Hope Border Institute (HOPE): https"//www.hopeborder.org.

Estrella del Paso: www.estrelladelpaso.org.