Prayer for those detained in ICE raids in LA
From the Rev. Jennifer Gutierrez at Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice
Please join me in prayer....
Please join me in prayer for the individuals that were detained by ICE today in raids in downtown Los Angeles.
Please join me in prayer for their families, their wives and husbands who will be missing their life partners when they go to sleep tonight, their children who will now have to face increased hunger and fear without their mom or dad to comfort them.
Please join me in prayer for all who loved these children of God that are now missing from our communities, our schools, our workplaces, and our houses of worship.
Holes have been ripped in the fabric of our interconnected lives, and our response must be to pray.
We must pray with our whole beings...
…calling out to God with our voices, like Rachel who could not be comforted when her children were no more.
…extending our hands to our neighbors, offering protection when ICE comes for them.
…marching with our feet into the halls of power to demand change.
As I shared at our recent Giants of Justice gathering, this is a time that calls for courage.
Below are some acts of courage that I invite you to add to your spiritual disciplines.
ICE has been detaining people at immigration courts in LA and Orange Counties. Faith leaders, especially clergy, can have an impact in preventing these detentions. Today in Orange County 15 CLUE faith leaders accompanied the OC Rapid Response Network to immigration court. In one of the courts, the judge recognized the clergy because of their attire and asked them to share their names. That judge did not order any detentions today.
ICE was still waiting outside the court to detain families as they exited, but the clergy accompanied a frightened woman out of the courtroom, arm in arm with a faith leader on each side of her, all the way to the parking lot where she was able to drive away safely.
Tuesday morning, June 10, CLUE will be visiting immigration courts in LA to offer the same accompaniment. If you can be part of this holy work, please contact Jennifer Coria at jcoria@cluejustice.org.
The following Tuesday, June 17, a women’s vigil is planned at ICE headquarters in LA at 300 N. Los Angeles Street. Following the example of the Mothers of the Disappeared in Argentina, they will be conducting a weekly vigil, praying with their presence for the ones who have been disappeared from our communities. If you can join in their prayer, please contact Hasset Hailu at hhailu@cluejustice.org.
These are the public opportunities for prayer we have planned , but you don’t need to wait for us.
Now is a time for courage.
Reach out to your neighbors and plan a vigil at a Home Depot near your home. You just might interrupt an ICE raid while you’re there.
Gather some people from your congregation and do a sit-in in the field office of your representative, demanding that they protect all people in the community.
Pray for courage, gather your community, and act with courage together.
In faith and solidarity,
Rev. Jennifer Gutierrez, Executive Director
Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice educates, organizes, and mobilizes religious leaders and community members to walk with low-wage workers, immigrants, and communities of color while advocating for dignity, fair work, and healthy communities.
The Narrative Gap, as coined by Lisa Sharon Harper, is the distance between the stories that we tell ourselves about ourselves, including how we got here and what it will take to make things right. In our world today, competing narratives vie for our loyalty, dividing society and the church, therefore making justice impossible. Our mission is help communities shrink the narrative gap, by identifying core issues and building community capacity so they might work toward common solutions for a just world. Here on the Freedom Road Substack, we can converse together on ways to shrink that narrative gap and help ensure everyones’ stories are told.
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