Activists advocate for the rights of detained immigrants

Detainees in the Suffolk County House of Corrections wave back at the prayer vigil attendees Sunday. PHOTO BY MIKE DESOCIO/DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

Detainees in the Suffolk County House of Corrections wave back at the prayer vigil attendees Sunday. PHOTO BY MIKE DESOCIO/DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

More than 40 people gathered outside the Suffolk County Correctional Facility Sunday in solidarity for immigrants detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement within the building’s walls.

Over 250 illegal immigrants are detained in the facility currently, said Brother Anthony Zuba at the prayer vigil, which sought to highlight the injustices of a flawed criminal system. Zuba is co-founder of the event’s sponsor, the New Sanctuary Movement, which is a conglomerate of congregations from around the Greater Boston area that advocates for the rights of detained immigrants.

“We hope to create solidarity with the people who are being held,” said Peter Lowber, 69, co-founder of the NSM. “Just because they’re undocumented, they’re in jail here with no judicial process, indefinitely. We think it’s criminal, actually.”

The NSM has been hosting the vigil for five or six years, Lowber said. The attendees began by reading aloud over 140 names of people who had died in detention in the past year. While the causes of death in many cases were diagnosed as previous conditions, others were highly preventable, he said.

Lowber said the NSM also works closely with immigrants rights groups from around the area to call for reform.

“We listen to them, and we support their campaigns because they know what’s best for their communities,” Lowber said. “But they need allies. We need everyone out here to be allies with the immigrant community to show our solidarity and the struggle for justice.”

Zuba, a Capuchin Franciscan from Jamaica Plain and Boston University alum, said the deaths of immigrants behind the facility’s walls prompted him and his colleagues to found the Movement.

Rev. María Cristina Vlassidis Burgoa (left) Interim Second Minister at First Parish in Brookline, joins in singing  to support the immigrants detained in the Suffolk County House of Corrections Sunday. PHOTO BY MIKE DESOCIO/DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

Rev. María Cristina Vlassidis Burgoa (left) Interim Second Minister at First Parish in Brookline, joins in singing to support the immigrants detained in the Suffolk County House of Corrections Sunday. PHOTO BY MIKE DESOCIO/DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

“We founded our chapter in 2009,” Zuba said. “We wanted to stand witness to the death of Pedro Tavares, who was detained in this city and did not receive the medical care he needed. That was the inspiration for forming our local chapter.”

While the local chapter was founded in 2009, the Movement gained momentum several years prior, Zuba said.

“There’s a network of sanctuary organizations in numerous cities across the United States,” he said. “This traces its origin back to 2007, when the previous conversations about immigrant reform lead to a reaction from church organizations in response to potentially very negative, harmful proposals coming out of the Congress in 2006. There were marches of millions of people across the U.S.”

The attendees of the prayer vigil stood outside the correctional facility, singing and chanting as inmates within gathered near the windows. The inmates waved and held up signs for the attendees, who stood in prayer and sang hopeful tunes while waving back.

The exchanges between the attendees and the inmates lasted for over 45 minutes, as many were crying and highly emotional.

“We know that the conditions here are very poor. We’ve heard that from people on the inside,” Lowber said. “A year ago, there was a hunger strike at this facility, and the ICE responded by dividing those people up and redistributing them to other jails outside of Suffolk.”

Denise Garcia, 36, of Chelsea, who organized the vigil, blamed Congress for their lack of immigration law reform and the detrimental effect on the lives of those detained.

“Right now, nothing’s happening,” she said. “Congress is sitting on their hands, saying they won’t do it. The president is stalling. He’s broken promises. It’s a political game, and he’s playing with peoples’ lives.”

By gathering to pray and to sing, Garcia said, the attendees are giving hope to the inmates in their bleak environment behind bars.

“We’ve seen a gentleman hold up a sign to the jail window who said that at one time, he was in detention here for 7 years,” Garcia said. “We don’t know his case exactly, but there are people here being held unjustly.”

Rev. María Cristina Vlassidis Burgoa gives a gesture of hope and inclusion to the detainees at the Suffolk County House of Corrections Sunday. PHOTO BY MIKE DESOCIO/DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

Rev. María Cristina Vlassidis Burgoa gives a gesture of hope and inclusion to the detainees at the Suffolk County House of Corrections Sunday. PHOTO BY MIKE DESOCIO/DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

Several congregations were represented at the vigil, and Catholic, Native American and African prayers were read to the crowd. The languages spoken by the attendees were as diverse as the names read from the list of perished detainees.

“As a faith organization, we’re here to bear witness to the injustice that is happening,” said Laura Wagner, 46, of Marlboro, acting executive director of the Unitarian Universalist Massachusetts Action group. “These are not criminals. These are people. We’re going to continue to work to change laws, so this will no longer happen.”

Jack Smith, 69, of Brookline, said he attended the event to sustain his role as an activist.

“This is an injustice,” he said. “These people are here almost in isolation. Very limited visiting privileges. They don’t even have the rights that people who have committed crimes have.”

Ann Gilmore, 64, of Brookline, said she stood in solidarity for those being detained because everyone should be treated with the utmost respect.

“My heart breaks open to think that my country, my state, my county incarcerates people solely for the crime of being in this place at this time,” she said. “I believe in a world without borders, in a world where people show up with their whole selves, and they’re accepted for who they are.”

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