ICE Detention Center Prayer Vigil ~ Boston MA

“Remember, remember always, that all of us, and you and I especially, are descended from immigrants and revolutionists.” ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

Today I attended and documented the monthly vigil outside Boston’s ICE Detention Center. An interfaith group gathers the last Sunday of every month at the Suffolk County Sheriff’s office and then walks together to an overpass by the expressway where the detainees can look out the window and know that they have not been forgotten. It’s a circuitous route to get to the overpass and along the way today we passed a first set of buildings where we couldn’t see into the oneway glass of the facility’s windows but we heard the banging from the other side. The group waved and smiled up at the windows as we walked past knowing that even though we couldn’t see them there were faces on the other side looking back down on us. The dystopian reality was gut-wrenching: Human beings on the other side being held captive by the US Government simply because they weren’t born here. I felt sick and a the first tears of the day streamed down my face. We then arrived at the overpass and through the trees there were more windows but this time you could see inside – white bars, forlorn faces and waving hands. In one window a piece of paper that just said “Ecuador.” The crowd chanted and sang as they waved signs and held up heart shapes with their hands. Again tears. I didn’t have a sign because I had my camera and gear but this is what I would have wanted to say while feeling so helpless on the side of the road:

“You can build walls all the way to the sky and I will find a way to fly above them. You can try to pin me down with a hundred thousand arms, but I will find a way to resist. And there are many of us out there, more than you think. People who refuse to stop believing. People who refuse to come to earth. People who love in a world without walls, people who love into hate, into refusal, against hope, and without fear. I love you. Remember. They cannot take it.” ~ Lauren Olive

Note: There are nationwide #ClosetheCamps protests on July 2nd. To find one near you click HERE.