That We All May Be One

Yesterday afternoon I joined a couple of dozen others for a demonstration at the offices of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) unit in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The rally was to “Free Asucena” and the details follow:

Asucena came to the United States for refuge, fleeing severe personal abuse in Guatemala. She turned herself in at the border, and the U.S. government granted her permission to enter and to seek asylum status.

She has cooperated with ICE and is pursuing her asylum case in Iowa. But, at one of her scheduled check-ins, ICE unexpectedly detained her and refused to set bond for release. What shocking and heartless treatment for an abuse survivor seeking asylum, with a clean record and cooperating with the government!

When we arrived for the demonstration (which had been requested by Asucena’s young lawyer) we were delighted to hear that, due to public outcry such as ours, ICE had changed its position and approved her release (after a terrifying night in jail) on a $5,000 bond which she was, fortunately, able to raise. I am sure that it was no easy task putting together even that amount of money from friends and supporters. But she is safely at home this morning.

We marched around the block behind banners and with chants such as the one above, positioned ourselves in front of the ICE office building where we heard an update on her case from the lawyer. Next steps are for her to await a court date (which could be as late as next August!). Can you imagine the anxiety she will experience over those many days, weeks, and months?

Several brief addresses followed. I said something like, “My name is Christopher Epting. I am the retired Bishop of Iowa and I’m here because our faith tradition is sensitive to the plight of the strangers and sojourners in the land and therefore we will always stand with immigrants and refugees such a Asucena. We are sometimes called ‘witnesses of Christ.’ We are also ‘witnesses for Christ’. We are his eyes and ears and we are watching for and with him. ICE, we are watching!”

We must hold our government, and in this case the Immigration and Customs Enforcement arm, accountable to basic values of dignity and fairness. Join us as you can, wherever you are.

This entry was posted on October 20, 2017 at 2:11 pm and is filed under Blogroll, Church Life, Ecumenical, Emergent Church, Interfaith, Justice and Peace, Politics, Politics, Religion, Scripture, The Episcopal Church, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.