Clergy, religious organizations and advocates mobilize to help immigrants facing deportation

Churches, synagogues and mosques would host immigrants who are facing deportations. 

Instant text messages would notify residents when immigration and enforcement officers are in a community.

And teams of volunteers armed with video recorders would be dispatched when immigrants living in the country illegally are taken into custody for deportation.

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These are among the grassroots efforts being organized by advocates, clergy and congregations in New Jersey and the rest of the country to help undocumented immigrants who may be future targets of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). In recent days, such enforcement operations have led to the arrest of hundreds of undocumented immigrants nationwide, including in New York, where 41 people were taken into custody. No unusual enforcement activity has been reported in New Jersey since President Donald Trump signed executive orders that increased efforts to detain and deport those living in the country illegally, but advocates who work with immigrants said they want to be ready when such enforcement takes place. 

“There is a lot of fear and unknown with what is going to happen,’’ said Richard Morales, immigration policy director at PICO, a national network of faith-based community groups, which is conducting training with congregation leaders, including those from New Jersey. “Everything this new administration said they would do during the campaign is coming true.”

Alvin Phillips, the New Jersey spokesman for ICE, declined to comment on efforts by advocates and religious groups to protect immigrants from possible deportation.

Last month, days after being sworn in as president, Trump signed an immigration order that laid out categories of undocumented immigrants who would be subject to priority removals – for instance, those charged with or convicted of a crime, those who are subject to final order of removal or undocumented immigrants who have “abused” any program related to receiving public benefits. The order also gave individual immigration officers the power to decide if a person should be detained based on whether they believe the person poses a risk to public safety or national security.

“They are prioritizing almost every undocumented immigrant for deportation, and that is why there is so much fear in the communities,’’ Morales said.

In a statement released this week, Homeland Security Secretary Richard Kelly said approximately 75 percent of the 678 people arrested in the “series of targeted enforcement operations” held last week in Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, San Antonio and New York City were “criminal aliens,” convicted of crimes including, but not limited to, homicide, aggravated sexual abuse, sexual assault, drug trafficking, battery, assault and weapons charges.

Phillips, the spokesman for ICE, said immigration officials have not conducted any targeted enforcement operations in New Jersey since December, when 82 people were detained during a five-day sweep. He said reports that officers are detaining non-criminal unauthorized immigrants are false.

“If you don’t fit into those categories, ICE officers are not targeting you,” he said.

Supporters of the president applaud any increased efforts to remove criminals who are in the country illegally. And this week, the White House rejected reports that it was considering a roundup of all undocumented immigrants.

In New Jersey – home to the nation’s third-largest immigrant population, with nearly 500,000 unauthorized immigrants – the executive orders have mobilized immigrants, their supporters and the clergy. On Thursday, a “Day without Immigrants” was organized, mostly through social media, to draw attention to the struggles of immigrants and the recent raids, as well as to protest Trump’s executive orders.

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Cardinal Joseph Tobin, the new leader of the Archdiocese of Newark, has criticized the immigration orders and vowed to continue to resettle refugees, who were also a target of the executive orders. Several municipalities, including Jersey City and Prospect Park, have approved resolutions stating that they are safe, welcoming places for unauthorized immigrants. Earlier this month, Democratic state lawmakers introduced legislation that would provide funding for municipalities or counties that lose money under a Trump executive order that demands a cut in federal grant funding for sanctuary cities. The vote on the bill was delayed Monday because some Democrats who back the measure were not in attendance. But Governor Christie has said he would veto the bill, which Republicans say, if adopted, would cost the state billions of dollars.

Meanwhile, the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice, a statewide group pushing for municipalities and counties to become sanctuary cities and protect undocumented immigrants, has hired an additional staff member as it gears up to conduct training sessions for community leaders to hold “Know Your Rights ” information sessions. The alliance also will hold training for community leaders to form response teams, which would log information about immigration enforcement activity in the local community and record such events, said Johanna Calle, program coordinator for the organization.

“For people to respond to raids or respond to ICE, every community around the state is going to have to start to figure out what they are going to do,’’ she said. “You have to have people respond to an emergency who will be there to support, but community members have to be trained on what they can do in preparation for some sort of issue.”

Six religious congregations in Essex, Middlesex and Hudson counties have declared themselves sanctuaries for immigrants and will host those who may be facing deportation and want to avoid federal immigration agents, while several others have said they will assist those congregations in their efforts, said Archange Antoine, executive director of FAITH in New Jersey, part of the PICO Network, which is working with sanctuary congregations in the Garden State.

“We are focused on trying to get clergy and people of faith active in the sanctuary movement, trying to get them committed to opening up their congregation to host families,’’ he said. “We are doing sanctuary congregation training, and they are building rapid-response teams, and they are sending leaders to grassroots leadership training on how to organize and build effective relationships. ’’

Across the country, congregations have already started to offer undocumented immigrants facing deportation a place to stay. Morales, of PICO, said about five people have already sought help. Earlier this week, an undocumented woman from Mexico – whose request for a stay of her deportation was denied – sought refuge at the First Unitarian Society of Denver, where she will remain for an undetermined time.

An immigrant’s journey

Catalino Guerrero is one of those facing deportation to his native country of Mexico.

But the 59-year-old Union City resident said this week that he will not go into hiding and seek sanctuary at a place of worship. Instead, he will report to immigration officials for his next meeting on March 10 in Newark. He said he doesn’t want to give ICE officials a reason to enter a sanctuary and jeopardize the status of others who might have pending meetings with authorities.

“I would never want to not show up, because it might affect others in similar situation as me,’’ he said. “We decided I will present myself and let God do what he will do.”

Guerrero came to the United States in 1991, and a year later secured a work permit and Social Security card. He said that unbeknownst to him at the time, his attorney had applied for political asylum on his behalf – the reason he received the work permit. But his application was denied, he said, and years later he discovered that an order of removal had been issued for him in 2004.

In 2011, he said, ICE officials showed up at his house and took him into custody, but he was later released. Since then, he has been reporting to the offices of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Newark for routine check-ins.

Last week, Feb. 8, he met with immigration officials along with his attorney; he was released and told to return on March 10 with a valid passport. He fears that next time, he will be detained and sent to Mexico.

“I’m not a criminal, I’m not into drugs,” he said this week as he sat in his living room, decorated with statues of the Virgin Mary and images of Our Lady of Guadalupe. “I have been here more than 20 years, and I’ve paid taxes, and everything I have earned I have invested here, and I have no one in Mexico.”

Guerrero, the father of four and grandfather of four, said his children, all adults, worry about him and his health. He suffered a stroke in 2011 and has diabetes and high blood pressure. When he talks about his children and their uncertainty of the future, he cries.

“My only family are my children, and if they deport me, my children will be here,’’ he said. “They tell me, ‘Dad, if you leave, we don’t know what is going to happen to you.’ In Puebla, we don’t have family.”

Churches with a mission

The Rev. Seth Kaper-Dale, a gubernatorial candidate for the Green Party in New Jersey and pastor of the Reformed Church of Highland Park, said he knows of hundreds of people in situations just like Guerrero’s who have been successfully checking in with immigration officials. This year, he said, it’s different, with many fearing their next check-in dates.

“We are looking to support those people who have final deportation orders and have not been convicted of a major crime,’’ said Kaper-Dale, who is among the clergy leading efforts in his community. “We want to be supportive of them.”

An immigrant and refugee advocate, Kaper-Dale in 2012 gave shelter at his church to nine Indonesian immigrants at risk of deportation. The church converted Sunday school classrooms into bedrooms and installed showers. The immigrants lived at the church for nine months.

“We are ready now to offer physical sanctuary,’’ said Kaper-Dale, who has also helped resettle recently arrived refugees.

Kaper-Dale said he has talked to town officials in Highland Park about possibly allowing “Nixle Alerts,” which notify local people of emergencies, to also include information about ICE activity in the area. He said that if ICE officials are spotted in town, an alert would go out to residents.

He said his church would also have teams of volunteers on call and available to help people who have had a family member detained or deported.

Pastor Ramon Collazo, of St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church in Union City and Santa Isabel Lutheran Church in Elizabeth, said both churches will serve as sanctuary sites for immigrants who need help. This, he said, is the mission of religious communities. He said immigration laws lack the due process that is required for justice.

“A sanctuary can expose the USA lack of justice in the immigration system,’’ Collazo said.