By Ali Halloum
AFRO Interns
Amid ongoing immigration crackdowns by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, faith leaders of every denomination are calling for action.
On June 8, the 47th president federalized the California National Guard to quell protests against ICE raids, over the objection of Governor Gavin Newsom. The agency has detained individuals outside of churches, courthouses and schools, due to a January 21 directive by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), allowing ICE to enter what it calls “sensitive areas.”
The AFRO spoke with Reverend James Tait, pastor of the Village Church in Washington, D.C. about the duty of faith leaders when it comes to protecting immigrants at risk. Tait has been a member of the strategy team for the Washington Interfaith Network (WIN) for seven years.
Tait said that when cruelty masquerades as policy, faith organizations in the WIN must stand with immigrants and “lift our voices in holy protest.”
“We say unequivocally that no child should be snatched from their mothers arms in the name of national security,” Tait said. “The Washington Interfaith Network stands in solidarity with immigrant communities across the country, from east of the river in D.C. to Central California’s migrant camps.”
According to Tait, WIN is a “power building” organization that represents 45 churches, mosques, synagogues, community organizations and labor unions in the District.
He said that as an African-American clergyman, he is especially aware of the “dangerous dance” between racism and immigration policy in the United States, noting the similarities between ICE’s “surveillance and criminalization of immigrants” as part of the same system that is overpolicing Black communities and “chokes justice at every turn.”
“We see ICE for what it is: a tool of state violence,” he said. “We see Trump and hear his rhetoric for what it is…the same hate that once haunted our ancestors.”
Tait told the AFRO that WIN is calling for a “nationwide sanctuary campaign” in houses of worship, noting that “the story of immigrant struggle is down to the story of Black liberation.”
“Their tears are our tears,” he said. “Their chains are our chains and their freedom is tied to our own.”
The National Immigration Law Center advises centers of worship to “clearly delineate” which areas of their buildings are public and which are private or open only at certain times. They also advise that congregations choosing to label themselves as “sanctuaries” need to know the protections afforded to them under the Religious Freedom Reform Act (RFRA).
Passed in 1993 and signed by President Bill Clinton, the RFRA prohibits the United States Government or any of its agencies, including ICE, from “substantially burdening a person’s exercise of religion.”