Faith leaders bear witness as migrants appear in immigration court

Rev. When Jason Cook came to the Migration Court in Santa on Friday, he wore a traditional white collar and a stained glass color -like color.

For a few weeks, the members of the cook and clergy from a cross -section of religions come with the immigrants during their deportation hearings in Orange County, Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego. Faith leaders learned that many immigrants looking for asylum were invoiced as a routine court appearance and that they were whipped by federal agents and locked in remote detention facilities without a chance to say goodbye or farewell to the family.

They tried to use their existence to relieve immigrants and give judges a moral sense of authority. They also went to the courtroom to witness with a silent prayer.

On Friday, clergymen visited the courtrooms to find migration and customs enforcement agents. If civilian agents lived outside a courtroom, it was a good indication that the immigrants inside were targeted for accelerated lifting after their cases were heard.

Cook knows that the existence of clergy will not necessarily change the outcome of the legal proceedings – in at least one example last month, when clergy appeared in a courthouse in San Diego, ice agents disintegrated. If there is nothing else, they hope to offer spiritual comfort, so immigrants know that they are not forgotten.

“There is a big part [our faith] To meet this stranger, to treat immigrants with compassion and carefully, Cook Cook said. We are there, we are trying to address a higher authority than ice. “

Most of the immigrants detained in the Migration Court are asylum seekers who come to the country using the CBP One Mobile application used by Biden administration to create a more regular process for asylum applications since the beginning of 2023. Immigrants can use the application when they reach Mexico soil to make an appointment with US officials in the legal entrance ports to offer asylum offers and to provide biographical information for scanning.

President Trump closed the CBP after an application an hour after he took office in January. Tens of thousands of immigrants, who have provided legal entry to the USA through the CBP One program, have the authorities to quickly deport. Legal Wars Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela to reclaim temporary conditional evacuated guards during asylum for hundreds of thousands of immigrants.

Faith leaders say that studies are an extension of their services for immigrants who often participate in their churches. In the past, some places of worship opened its doors to host undocumented immigrants under the risk of deportation. In LA, faith leaders organized food drivers for seizures and peaceful marches at the Los Angeles Federal Building for migrants who were afraid to leave their homes.

In the Internal Empire, the members of the clergy entered the fields of grapes to distribute “know your rights” cards.

“Throughout history, clergy and belief leaders and spiritual leaders have really played a catalytic role in the bending of Ark towards moral justice,” he said. “When they do it right, they leave room for others to go for a walk.”

On June 11, the Catholic bishop of San Diego reached the clergymen to ask for help to expand their efforts to accompany immigrants.

Father Scott Santarosa of the Virgin Mary, Guadalupe, said that the letter was very interested and they had to limit the number of clergy who could participate. With the World Refugee Day, they also held a mass on Friday before arriving to the immigrant court.

“We did not plan to block or block or do anything. We only planned to be present and to immigrants and refugees with our presence ‘Hey, you are not alone’ ‘he said.

If returned to his own country, a Venezuela asylum seeker, who wanted to be defined by fear of revenge, held a hearing with his children at La County at the beginning of June. After entering the CBP One application, he came to the USA in December. The June hearing would be his first.

He knew he was at the risk of deportation and wondered if he would attend the hearing. He shared his fears with the priest of a region who offered to go with him. On the morning of the hearing, he came to court with three priests and one translator. The judge felt that he was protected when he gave a future court hearing and was allowed to leave.

“Everything is fine,” he said. “I feel because of the Christian support I have at that moment.”

Unitarian Universalist Minister Cook in Orange County said he went to court at least twice a week.

Initially, ice agents refrained from confrontation with religious leaders, and in some cases he left the court when the clergy came.

In time, however, Cook said that agents faced more and said to the clergy to stay 10 meters away from agents. He said that an ice agent watched a clergyman pushed a cleric member after trying to accompany an immigrant court.

Members of the Orange County Catholic worker community offer quiet consolation and justice prayer for immigrants who will appear in the immigrant court that day.

(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

They continued because the work feels important and compatible with the mission of belief.

Cook, except for a courtroom that is not far from ice agents, “Conscience for these people.

Dave Gibbons, Founder Newssong Church Santa Ana said that after a Central American couple accompanied, he was taken into custody in front of his children, he took a break from the court visits. The part of the congregation drowned in tears describing. But he was determined to come back.

Uz We believe it is in the heart of the Bible, Gibbons said. “There is nothing more sacred than standing with those who are marginalized.”

Rev., a community minister in Orange County. Terry Lepage attended immigration hearings almost every day. On Friday morning, he distributed brochures that stimulates that there were ice agents.

That morning, the members of the clergy met a man who was given temporary protected status during the Biden administration. He came to a shearing without a lawyer. He wore a crispy white shirt and carried his documents in a black state.

The clergy called for leaders to communicate with their family and to declare that they could be detained. But the Spanish -speaking man was sure he would be allowed to return home.

Within the courtroom, the lawyer of the Ministry of Internal Security, as a request of the judge despite the satisfaction of the judge, argued that the man’s case should be rejected. Thomas Crisp, a priest who sits on the audience, watched in horror and promised the last few comfort: “God bless you.”

The Haiti man took two steps from the courtroom before he was deported by federal agents and starting an emergency exit stairwell.

This article is part of Times’ Stock reporting initiative– financed by James Irvine FoundationTo investigate the difficulties faced by low -income workers and efforts to address Economic division of California.