Friends,
Janice Sevre-Duszynska and I had to join
this action. Our modern presidents have been beholden to Wall Street and
the Pentagon. Some have been worse than others. I have never seen a
president I could support. Obama, for example, engaged in a killer drone
assassination program and started to “refurbish” the nuclear weapons arsenal
which will eventually cost taxpayers more than a trillion dollars.
But there has never been any
modern president like Donald Trump. If you look at his administration and
his cabinet officers, Trump’s selection process seems to be to find the most
unqualified person for the job. Alex Acosta, the former Secretary of
Labor, had to step down because he gave a sweetheart deal to a sexual
predator. Trump’s proposed replacement is Eugene Scalia, an anti-union
lawyer.
And of course, one of many groups dealing with
the wrath of Trump is the immigrant population. This is most evident as the
children of asylum seekers are separated from their families and placed in
concentration camps.
On July 18, about 200 of us gathered
outside the Russell Senate Office Building, and many carried photographs
of children who died while in U.S. custody. The Trump administration has
no sense of conscience and a total lack of morality, which caused 70 Catholics
to take the risks of peace to protest Trump’s policies. After our
arrests, ten of us requested our day in court. The Anti-Trump Ten are
scheduled to be arraigned in D.C. Superior Court on August 21. It should be
noted besides Janice and I, Sisters Ardeth Platte and Carol Gilbert, Kathy
Boylan and Michael Walli, all members of the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker, and
four others are also scheduled to appear.
As someone who has been arrested many times in
Washington, D.C., I must complain about the arrest procedures. The
arrests on July 18 began around 12:30 PM, and I was one of the first to be
handcuffed behind my back. There is no reason not to cuff people in
front. Try sitting on a bus with your hands behind your back. Next
you are frisked, and my officer assaulted my testicles going up my left leg and
again going up my right leg. Once the bus was filled we were taken to a
Capitol Police facility on K Street.
There we were frisked again, and my testicles
were again whacked. Why frisk a person again who remained in police
custody? It was a relief to have my cuffs cut off. However, a few
minutes later I was cuffed again, though this time my hands were cuffed in the
front. There was absolutely no reason for being cuffed again.
At least 15 officers were present to guard 45
women, many of whom were nuns, and 25 men, several of whom were priests. Each
prisoner was interviewed by an officer, and in my case I explained I was not
paying out as I wanted to challenge my charge in court. Once the
interviews were completed, the farce began.
Despite an overflow group of
officers, someone designed a ridiculous process to release 70 people. One
officer was placed at the printer, another officer placed a prisoner’s
belongings on a table and the third officer would walk over where we were
sitting and call out a name. This one arrestee would go over to get a
release form and his/her belongings and be released. Then the procedure
would be repeated. Rather than doing at least ten arrestees at a time,
the powers-to-be stuck with a silly process of involving just three officers
while all of the others were looking at their phones or doing make-work
assignments.
As one of the Ten requesting a
court date, I knew I would not be called until near the end of the
process. I was finally the 67th prisoner to be released, and it was after
5 PM. This was a tremendous waste of time for both the police officers
and their prisoners. The only explanation I could conjure was that the
police in this slow-moving assembly line were getting over-time pay. Surely
there were more important duties for the police to undertake.
And we the protesters could have used
those extra hours to continue to speak out about the injustice being committed
on poor people seeking what we all want—a safe place to call home . While
going through this irrational procedure, I recognized that what was happening
to me and the other protesters was nothing like the suffering of the
border-crossers unfortunate enough to be imprisoned by Trump’s
minions. As someone who engages in nonviolence, I am a gentle angry
person. I look forward to speaking out in a court of law about the
abuse of people who are seeking asylum, a basic human right. As a person
of privilege, I hope to echo what I have read and heard about the suffering of
the asylum seekers. And if possible, I will quote in the courtroom the poetry
of Emma Lazarus: “Give
me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to
breathe free …”
Kagiso, Max
70 Catholics arrested in D.C. protest over Trump immigration
policies
A demonstration to end the practice of detaining immigrant children takes place at the Russell Senate Office Building on Thursday. (Marlena Sloss/The Washington Post)
July
18 at 2:15 PM
The Lord’s Prayer filled the marble dome of the
Russell Senate Office Building on Thursday as 70 Catholic sisters, clergy and
parishioners were led away in handcuffs.
“Forgive us our trespasses,” the demonstrators
recited, “as we forgive those who trespass against us.”
On a day they dubbed the “Catholic Day of Action,”
hundreds of Catholics gathered outside the Capitol to protest the Trump
administration’s immigration policies and its treatment of migrants.
“We hope that by being here and putting our bodies
on the line, we can give people, members of Congress, courage to do the right
thing,” said Sister Marge Clark, from the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed
Virgin Mary. “It’s important to go beyond words, to put your body where your
words are, where your beliefs are.”
In their hands and fastened to their bodies,
demonstrators carried photographs of migrant children who died in federal
custody into the Russell building, where more than 30 senators have offices. As
five protesters lay on the floor of the rotunda to make the shape of a cross
with their bodies, the group recited the children’s names:
“Darlyn,” protesters chanted in unison. “Jakelin.
Felipe. Juan. Wilmer. Carlos.”
Protesters recited the Lord’s
Prayer at the Russell building. (Marlena Sloss/The Washington Post)
Demonstrators carried photos of
migrant children who have died in federal custody. (Marlena Sloss/The
Washington Post)
Thursday’s demonstration was the second protest
this week in which people of faith decried Immigration and Customs Enforcement
and called for an end to the federal practice of detaining migrants at crowded
detention centers along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Ten Jewish demonstrators were arrested Tuesday for
refusing to leave the lobby of ICE headquarters in Southwest Washington. More
than 100 others locked arms and formed barriers around the building’s doors and
garage, disrupting the agency’s daily operations.
Thursday’s protest, which called for an end to
child detention, was organized by a coalition of more than 15 Catholic groups,
including the Sisters of Mercy, Faith in Action and the Leadership Conference
of Women Religious.
Demonstrators are reading excerpts from interviews
lawyers have conducted with children in detention. Between each reading, the
group joins in song: “Lord have mercy.” #CatholicDayOfAction
#DC
NOW: Inside the Russell Senate building here in #DC, where dozens of
Catholic nuns, parishioners and other leaders are preparing to be arrested by
Capitol Police on this #CatholicDayOfAction
in protest of the Trump administration’s immigration policies.
“We are here today because of our faith. The
gospel compels us to act,” Sister Ann Scholz, associate director for LCWR’s
social mission, told the crowd. “We are outraged at the horrific treatment of
families and especially children. The inhumane treatment of children being done
in our name must stop.”
Though Pope Francis and the U.S. Conference of
Catholic Bishops have long affirmed their support for migrants and refugees,
Catholic voters are split on the issue of immigration, according to surveys
conducted earlier this year by the Pew Research Center.
Catholic Democrats are more likely than Catholic
Republicans to view immigration as a boon rather than a burden to the United
States — 86 percent to 47 percent — and are more likely to oppose
expanding a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
“We can and must remain a country that provides
refuge for children and families fleeing violence, persecution and acute
poverty,” the Conference of Catholic Bishops wrote in a statement last month.
“All people, regardless of their country of origin or legal status, are made in
the image of God and should be treated with dignity and respect.”
Claribel Guzman, an undocumented immigrant from El
Salvador, bounced her 17-month-old daughter in her arms Thursday as
demonstrators read aloud the words of migrant children detained at federal
facilities.
Guzman, afraid of being deported to a country she
fears and of being separated from her child, said she has been weighing her
options. Maybe, she said, she would seek sanctuary at a local church.
Later, as Franciscan brothers in brown robes were
arrested alongside Catholic sisters, Guzman looked on, her head shaking
slightly.
“This is my fight now, for my daughter,” she said
in Spanish. “It’s very frustrating, very difficult. I am alone here. But in
this moment, seeing people like this helps me.”
The demonstration came less than a week after
President Trump promised a crush of immigration raids in cities around the
country. Though they failed to materialize Sunday as the president promised —
Trump said he wanted agents “to take people out and take them back to their
countries” — several sisters who work with immigrants said they have seen a
lingering fear grip their communities.
“It’s so much worse now. So much worse than we’ve
ever seen it, and every day my stomach sinks when something new comes out,”
said Sister JoAnn Persch, 85, a Chicago nun with the Sisters of Mercy. “But you
know what I’ve learned? I’ve learned that nuns have power. And that’s why we’re
here.”
Persch and Sister Pat Murphy, 90, began working
with immigrants in 1990, when they took over Su Casa, a Chicago refuge for
Central American women, children and torture survivors. In 2007, they began
sitting vigil outside the Broadview Detention Center, an ICE facility near
Chicago that is often a last stop before immigrants are sent back to their home
countries.
Dan Moriarty, center, Sister Karen Burke, right, and Sister Barbara Battista, left, form a cross in the Russell Senate Office Building rotunda. (Marlena Sloss/The Washington Post)
They return every Friday — no matter the weather —
to pray the rosary.
“Those little children and their mothers and
fathers coming across the border, those who are here in the United States, are
maligned, called names. It’s rude, crude, disgusting,” Murphy said. “The
climate in the country now is very sad, and it’s scary. It’s a scary time.”
The sisters were among about 50 nuns who
participated in Thursday’s act of civil disobedience.
As police officers led the last group away, hands
zip-tied behind their backs, the demonstrators sang a hymn.
All that remained were photographs of the deceased
children, scattered across the Capitol’s hard, cold ground.
Watch here as Sister Pat Murphy, 90, is arrested and led
out. Sister Pat works with migrants and refugees in Chicago, and has been
holding a weekly vigil outside ICE there for 13 years. She says the treatment
of migrants should outrage all people of faith #CatholicDayOfAction
#DC
Capital police officers are dismantling the human cross
these Catholics made with their bodies on the Russell Rotunda floor during
today’s #CatholicDayOfAction.
On their chests are photographs of migrant children who have died in recent
months while in federal custody. #DC
Marissa
J. LangMarissa J. Lang is a local reporter covering the D.C. metro
area. Follow
Donations can be sent
to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD
21218. Ph: 410-323-1607; Email: mobuszewski2001 [at] comcast.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
"The master class
has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles.
The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject
class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their
lives." Eugene Victor Debs
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