Los Angeles clergy and community members will undertake a week-long pilgrimage to call attention to immigration policies and conditions in detention centers.
“Build up, build up a highway! Clear a road! Remove all obstacles from the road of My people!” — Isaiah 57:14
Submitted by Julia Mata
LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles clergy members from different faith traditions will embark on a week-long, 96-mile pilgrimage to draw attention to immigration policies and call for an end to detention centers. Religious leaders and accompanying community members will walk to raise awareness of the experiences of immigrants and to serve as a voice of protest for those who may not feel safe speaking out.
A Pilgrimage of Witness
The pilgrimage brings together people of faith who seek to stand in solidarity with immigrant communities and those being held in detention.
The Rev. Canon Jaime Edwards-Acton of St. Stephen’s Hollywood shared:
“In my 30+ years of ministry, I have buried many people. It is one of the hardest and most sacred things a priest does. Ismael Ayala-Uribe was thirty-nine years old. Gabriel García-Avilés was fifty-six. They died in Adelanto, a facility that the private company GEO Corp. is paid by the head to operate, and most people in this state have never heard either name. We are walking ninety six miles, so those names are spoken somewhere other than a court filing — and because nearly two thousand people are still inside who have not died, and whose lives are still ours to fight for.”
Rabbi Susan Goldberg of Nefesh said:
“It is on purpose that Adelanto is so far from Los Angeles. It is to keep the public’s focus away from the horrible conditions and deaths of those detained, and to hurt the families of the disappeared by keeping their loved ones so far out of reach. In the Ten Commandments and throughout the Torah we are told not to be ed sheker — a false witness. To be a true witness, a faithful witness, we pay attention and we act.”
Goldberg added:
“In Los Angeles and all around the world, people of faith care for the most vulnerable and believe with great heart that we can transform society through compassion and love. We will walk these miles to let those being detained and their families know that they are not forgotten.”
The Rev. Jennifer Gutierrez, Executive Director of CLUE, concluded:
“Fathers, mothers, children, our neighbors and friends are being ripped from our communities. A whole generation of children are being traumatized, separated from their families. We invite all people of faith to join us in demanding their release.”
About the Organizers
CLUE — Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice educates, organizes, and mobilizes religious leaders and community members to walk with low-wage workers, immigrants, and communities of color while advocating for dignity, fair work, and healthy communities.
Nefesh is an open-hearted Jewish spiritual community welcoming all of the identities that make up who we are and who we love. Born in the multicultural beauty of LA’s east side neighborhoods, Nefesh cultivates empathy, love, and justice. Nefesh is a doorway to the wisdom, ritual, and melodies of the Jewish tradition — a place to find and be found. Nefesh actively partners with interfaith siblings in tikkun olam, repairing the world.
Sacred Resistance is a social justice, solidarity, and accompaniment ministry of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles, rooted in the baptismal call to stand in resistance to the systemic evils that oppress, exploit, and marginalize members of our human family. The ministry takes a holistic approach, integrating pastoral presence with faith-rooted organizing and mobilization.