September 2016 – Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity

September 22, 2016

Blog: Campaign #diapersnotdetention

Written by: Miriam Noriega

Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity joined a national campaign #diapersnotdetention by organizing a prayer vigil at the Federal Building in San Francisco and delivered 100 signed diapers to Rep. Nancy Pelosi. The messages about liberating the families and closing detention centers were written by people of different faiths. This action was in solidarity with 3,000 mothers and children refugees from Central America who have been detained in prison-like facilities for an unnecessarily prolonged time. Recently, 22 mothers have been on a hunger strike at Berks County, PA family detention center as a response to the Secretary of Homeland Security, J. Johnson’s comment, that the maximum stay for families in detention centers should be 22 days or less.

At the federal building in San Francisco, faith leaders held a prayer vigil and shared their reflections, “We are not politicians, much less the powerful of the system; we are men and women of faith and of family, the faces of those who have been deprived their freedom, their voices and their heartbeat of their hope”. The visual of the diapers made people chuckle, especially when they saw that a small brown paper was inserted in the diapers that said “BASTA” “ENOUGH”. Nonetheless, the diapers are symbolic for the basic needs of children that mothers need to take care of their children. They represent the morally just attitude that the federal government of the United States should have towards asylum seeking families, which is of caring hospitality instead of criminalization.

Afterwards, we entered the federal building and dialogued with the staff of Rep. Pelosi as people of faith, we spoke on the moral obligation to protect and welcome vulnerable women and children fleeing violence and seeking protection. Concretely, we asked that she use her influence with President Obama and Sec. J. Johnson to terminate the 3 family detention centers and immediately release all the women and children. Also, to curtail the approach of enforcement policies to support bills in Congress that address the root causes of migration from Central America. The staff listened to each person and we listened to them explaining that Rep. Pelosi has signed a letter, along with other congress men and women, that expressed dissent and urgent demand to end the detention centers that was addressed to Secretary Johnson. Finally, our presence at the federal building was conscientious effort to hold the U.S. federal government accountable the day after President Obama gave a final address at the historic United Nations Summit on Refugees and Migrants. He said, “At this moment, we all face a choice. We can choose to press forward with a better model of cooperation and integration. Or we can retreat into a world sharply divided, and ultimately in conflict, along age-old lines of nation and tribe and race and religion.” IM 4 Human Integrity chose to organize this public demonstration and prayer vigil believing that it can be a non-violent model for all communities of faith to integrate our belief of honoring the dignity of all people, regardless of their immigration status.

Hello my name is Josue De La Trinidad. I am 27, from Whittier, CA, and I joined Xplor to help me find my purpose and what God wants me to do. Xplor is a prophetic movement of and for young adults who are considering lives of care and service, and I will be an intern for 10 months with the Northern California office of IM4HumanIntegrity. I attended my first Immigration Vigil at the West County Detention Facility on Saturday, September 3, 2016. It was a new experience for me. I have never participated in any event like this. I have always just worked on things on my own and rarely in a group environment. Being there and watching people with different beliefs and religions in unison sing and pray was something amazing to be a part of. It taught me that even though we come from different religious backgrounds, we can work together to make a difference, and it’s easier if we do it together rather than trying to work on our own.

When I had read on social media about immigrants that are detained and how they are treated, sometimes I passed it off as people making it seem worse than it really is. But that day I heard testimony from a Honduran family, Jose and Julisa and their two children, who were actually detained and felt trapped in the tiny rooms. Jose, the father, was detained for over 60 days. Hearing their stories it becomes real and not something that was made up. It makes you think about what really is happening to people that are just trying to come and make a better life for their families and what we can do to help them.

I had never heard on the news that our country is also detaining children and families in detention centers, and it’s a horrible feeling to think that we as a nation try so hard to keep our kids safe, but disregard the lives of other children because they are not from here. As a way to advocate for the children and an end to family detention, we will be sending the message “Diapers not Detention” to President Obama. At the vigil we wrote messages on diapers that will be sent to President Obama and our members of Congress. Messages like “Babies need cribs, not prison cells” and “no jail for babies” and “Let My People Go” and “God Loves All the Little Children” were written to persuade those whom we elect to protect us that we need to protect every child, no matter where they come from. We will be delivering over 100 diapers to our Congressional leaders in the coming. I found this to be an enlightening experience and I hope this will take us a step closer to helping these children and their families.

Join our Vigil every first Saturday of the month, at 11 am- 12 noon, West County Detention Facility, 5555 Giant Highway, Richmond, CA. For details, email, dlee@im4humanintegrity.org.