MANCHESTER, NH – Manchester resident Karen Rejino, 23, spoke through tears about her mother’s deportation, during an Interfaith Prayer Vigil May 1 for Immigrant Justice outside the Norris Cotton Federal Building on Chestnut Street. Rejino grieves the deportation of her mother, Josefina, to Mexico last month, leaving Karen and her younger siblings in the U.S. Karen was born here and graduated from Memorial High School.
Organizers say there should be another way to make sure people who wish to be citizens can find their way, without breaking up families.
“We want them to have the ability to stay in the country with a pathway to citizenship,” said Arnie Alpert of American Friends Service Committee.
More than 100 people gathered for the May Day event organized by Granite State Organizing Project, American Friends Service Committee-NH, and NH Council of Churches in solidarity with vigils worldwide.
“We are here to uphold the dignity of those we know so well, those in our communities and schools. It is searing to see how they have been traumatized by our current Administration immigration policies. We are Americans, imbued with the values of dignity and generosity, no matter what the current Administration policies are, and what ICE is doing,” Father Sam Fuller of Ste. Anne-St. Augustin Parish said. “We uphold the dignity of the common person, of the stranger, and the immigrant.”
The Prayer Vigil marks nearly one year of vigils occurring several times monthly. They began in 2017 as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) increased arrests, detentions, and deportations in New Hampshire.
The event was led by Eva Castillo, director of the NH Alliance for Immigrants and Refugees, Rev. Gayle Murphy, United Church of Christ of Concord, and Rev. Emily Burr, Unitarian Universalist Church of Franklin.
The group circled the building seven times – a symbolic gesture conjuring the Biblical story of Joshua during the Battle of Jericho, during which the Israelites circled the city of Jericho seven times which caused the walls of the city to come down. Between each trip around the building, another storyteller would relate how increased ICE activity has affecting their family, faith, and cultural communities.
“Immigrant families in New Hampshire have been under great stress and fear. Throughout the past year, ICE has steadily increased the frequency of check-ins at the Norris Cotton Federal Building. Families come here more and more often and never know if a loved one will be detained or deported. We are here as people of faith to offer prayer support and pastoral counseling to our vulnerable immigrant families,” said Rev. Jason Wells, executive director of the New Hampshire Council of Churches.
