Page 6 - ARUBA TODAY

A6 U.S. NEWS
Monday 15 July 2019

Churches jump into action with threat of immigration sweeps

By SOPHIA TAREEN the city to make space
Associated Press available to any families
CHICAGO (AP) — As a who wanted to seek sanc-
nationwide immigration tuary while they sorted out
crackdown loomed, reli- their legal status. A dozen
gious leaders across the churches in the Los Angeles
country used their pulpits areas also declared them-
Sunday to quell concerns selves sanctuaries.
in immigrant communi- Attendance at church ser-
ties and spring into action vices on Sunday varied.
to help those potentially Another Chicago church
threatened by the opera- run by vocal immigrant
tion. rights advocates reported
A Chicago priest talked a big drop in attendance,
during his homily about the however.
compassion of a border Nearly all congregants at
activist accused of har- Adalberto United Method-
boring illegal immigrants, ist are living in the country il-
while another city church legally, and the Rev. Emma
advertised a “deportation Lozano attributed the large
defense workshop.” Doz- number of no-shows to
ens of churches in Houston fear. She said street ven-
and Los Angeles offered dors who sell food outside
sanctuary to anyone afraid Thousands of people, including immigrants and their supporters, rally against President Trump’s the church also were ab-
of being arrested. In Miami, immigration policies as they march from Daley Plaza to the Chicago field office of Immigration sent. She invited the Rev.
activists handed out fliers and Customs Enforcement, Saturday, July 13, 2019, in Chicago. Jesse Jackson to speak to
outside churches to help Associated Press attendees and hosted a
immigrants know their rights 10 major cities, including an would not answer ques- to address the southern workshop for immigrants
in case of an arrest. Chicago, Los Angeles, New tions about the operation border. With Sunday as the declaring it a “day of faith
“We’re living in a time York and Miami. at an unrelated briefing in anticipated start, churches and resistance.”
where the law may per- Activists and city officials re- Washington on Sunday on have been trying to strat- But that didn’t stop Doris
mit the government to ported some U.S. Immigra- the emergency manage- egize a response. Aguirre, who is from Hondu-
do certain things but that tion and Customs Enforce- ment response to Hurricane Cardinal Blase Cupich, the ras and has a final deporta-
doesn’t necessarily make ment activity in New York Barry. The renewed threat archbishop of Chicago, tion order, from attending.
it right,” said the Rev. John and Houston a day earlier, of mass deportations has wrote a letter to Arch- She said she will keep fight-
Celichowski of St. Clare de but it was unclear if it was put immigrant communi- diocese priests this month ing her case and for her
Montefalco Parish in Chi- part of the same operation. ties even more on edge saying, “Threats of broad family, who have mixed
cago, where the nearly New York City Mayor Bill de since Trump took office on enforcement actions by citizenship status. Her hus-
1,000-member congrega- Blasio confirmed on Twit- a pledge to deport millions ICE are meant to terrorize band is a naturalized U.S.
tion is 90 percent Hispanic ter that there were three living in the country ille- communities.” He urged citizen from Mexico, her
and mostly immigrant. incidents involving ICE on gally. While such enforce- priests in the Archdiocese son, born in Honduras, has
While federal immigra- Saturday, but agents didn’t ment operations have — which serves over 2 mil- protection from deporta-
tion officials were mum on succeed in rounding up been routine since 2003, lion Catholics — not to let tion through an Obama-
details, agents had been residents. The Houston ad- Trump’s publicizing its start, any immigration officials era program for young
expected to start a coor- vocacy group FIEL said two and the politics surround- into churches without iden- people, and her daughter,
dinated action Sunday tar- people were arrested there ing it, are unusual. Trump tification or a warrant. 17-year-old Izaithell Aguirre,
geting roughly 2,000 peo- Saturday. first announced the sweeps The Rev. Robert Stearns, was born in the U.S.
ple, including families, with Acting Homeland Security last month then delayed to of Living Water in Houston, The teenager said she wor-
final deportation orders in Secretary Kevin McAleen- give lawmakers a chance organized 25 churches in ried about her mom.q