ICE immigration courts have become sites of fear and danger for many immigrants simply trying to access due process. We invite you to help transform these spaces. Join us in creating a sacred corridor of hope, connection, and beloved community—right outside the courtroom doors.
We Offer:
Presence & spiritual solidarity
Prayer & pastoral care
Art, music, and witness
Vigil Days & Locations: Now through the end of August
Join Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity and Dignity Not Detention for a powerful weekend in the Central Valley focused on raising awareness and ending the harms of immigration detention. For the past three years an annual pilgrimage of formerly detained people, families, faith communities and organizers traveled and prayed at every ICE Detention Center in California as part of a statewide campaign for detention closure and liberation. While the power of community has helped close 9 out of 15 ICE detention centers over the past decade, the unlawful and violent attacks and disappearances of immigrants has meant that the number of those detained has doubled since the beginning of the year exacerbating already dangerous conditions.
This year, we will converge on the Central Valley, visiting the two existing detention centers: Golden State Annex in McFarland (now holding about 580 people, growing from about 330 people in the last 2 years) and Mesa Verde ICE Detention in Bakersfield (now holding womxn). We will also focus on two NEW facilities which may imminently open Central Valley Modified Community Correctional Facility in McFarland and California City Detention Center, which would become the largest in the state with 2500 beds.
Please join us for the Encuentro por la Dignidad, to bear witness and join with local communities in solidarity with those unjustly detained, and reclaim our collective power to assert a vision for thriving communities not cages, where everyone can be safe and belong.
EVENT DETAILS:
WHEN: 2pm, Friday, September 26th through 3pm Sunday, September 28th
WHERE: Starts in McFarland on Friday, Bakersfield on Saturday, and ends in California City on Sunday.
Partial attendance is optional and carpooling support is possible. See registration page for more details.
On June 8th, 2025, join Interfaith4Ceasefire and IM4HI to join our pilgrimage in public witness for the Palestinian Right of Return to their homes and families and affirm the human right to remain, return, and migrate. We will journey 22 miles—from Alameda to Berkeley—in reverse of last year’s pilgrimage route, journeying in prayer and solidarity with the right to return, symbolizing the distance from Rafah to Gaza City. This effort is part of the global movement of Gaza Ceasefire Pilgrimages that began last year and continues on. You can read more info about the movement here.
We gather in pilgrimage across spiritual and cultural communities because we uphold human life, dignity and mutual well-being as foundations of our spiritual beliefs. We recognize that the atrocities being carried out by U.S. tax dollars against the Palestinian people are intertwined with cruel and harmful U.S. policies of family separation, incarceration and criminalization that harms immigrants, unsheltered people, Indigenous, trans and BIPOC communities.
Event Details:
Date & Time: Sunday, June 8, 7 am – 7 pm
Location: East Bay, CA (Starting in Alameda, ending in Berkeley)
Distance: 22-mile journey, in 7 legs, symbolizing the distance from Rafah to Gaza City.
Registration:
To participate in the pilgrimage, volunteer, or attend, please registerhere.
This daylong journey will include scheduled stops for collective prayer and action, with opportunities for participants to join for shorter legs. A route can be previewed here.Adjustments may still be made.
Objectives:
The Right of Return pilgrimage advocates for:
The right to remain, the right of return, and the right to migrate
Enduring and sustained ceasefire
End the genocide, ethnic cleansing and torture of the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank
U.S. arms embargo on Israel
Immediate flow of food, water, fuel and medical aid to Gaza and the West Bank
Release of all hostages and political prisoners
Ending repression against students and advocates for Palestinian freedom and justice
Proposed Schedule:
Our 22-mile collective pilgrimage will be broken up into the following legs, with meeting times and locations noted:
(Note: Schedule might be subject to minor changes. A final, confirmed route will be released the week of. We are encouraging the most participation for *Leg 3 and *Leg 6.)
Leg
Arrival Time
Location
Estimated Length
1
7 AM
Islamic Center of Alameda 901 Santa Clara Ave, Alameda
3.3 miles
2
9 AM
Fruitvale BART Plaza12th St and 34th Ave
3.6 miles
3*
11:30 AM
Islamic Cultural Center of Northern California1433 Madison St, Oakland
3.3 miles
4
1:30 PM
Uptown Body and Fender, Sumud Mural 401 26th St, Oakland
2.2 miles
5
3 PM
Heart and Soul Center of Light 5811 Racine St, Oakland
4.6 miles (Optional walk around Berkeley Marina to complete the 22 miles)
**For the last leg 7 along the Berkeley Marina (~4.6 miles), in addition to walking, there will now be a group of joggers! Learn more and sign up to be a runner here: https://forms.gle/jD86GoMNV7ZdAKxM7
Donations:
In various pilgrimage traditions, generosity is specifically invited and cultivated as a practice. Offerings are made to express gratitude, seal vows, or support the spiritual sites along the way and at the destination. Rooted in these traditions and in line with the global ceasefire pilgrimage call, we invite your generosity.
For Individual Participants: Your donation via the pilgrimage will go entirely towards supporting the humanitarian needs in Gaza as well as honoring our intersectional partners of this pilgrimage. We encourage you to give as you can ($10 – $1,000).
For Organizations and Community Groups: Sponsorships enable us to underwrite the costs of the pilgrimage. This will cost about $10,000 for materials for banners and art, security/medic materials, snacks and water, and stipends. We encourage you to give at a level that is most generous to you ($100, $300, $500, $1000).
Donations can be made in two ways:
By Check, written out to IM4HI (memo, “Right of Return Pilgrimage”) and mailed to: IM4HI, 310 8th Street, Suite #310, Oakland, CA 94607
Online donations can be made here: bit.ly/I4Cgive (Please consider covering the 2% processing fee.)
The Pilgrimage is a sacred journey in solidarity with Palestinians and other targeted communities. In that spirit, we ask for agreement on the following:
By registering for the 2025 Pilgrimage, I understand there will be trained safety teams, de-escalators and police liaisons. I agree to follow all safety instructions given by event organizers and safety team volunteers while participating in the Pilgrimage and to move in the spirit of non-violence. In case of need, I will reach out to one of these team members. We keep each other safe.
I understand that this event is different from other marches and rallies. As an interfaith pilgrimage, we are choosing to map the right of return of Gazans and Palestinians to their homes and families, as we connect these issues to immigrant, indigenous, student, unhoused, transgender, and BIPOC communities here in the Bay Area.
We will participate prayerfully knowing that we all pray in different ways – so we strive to be respectful and be on the journey together. We will find a way to support and care for one another.
We we will come together to express love and solidarity, to embody remembrance and resistance, and to channel our grief and anger into action.
