Photo: Members of the Asamblea de Derechos Civiles Ride for Emancipation praying with Washington D.C. Catholic Workers and individuals from Christian Peacemaker Teams in front of the White House. Photo by Ry Owen Siggelkow. 

Antonia Alvarez has been advocating for immigration justice for more than 16 years, but the Sept. 5 announcement by President Donald Trump’s administration that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) Program would be terminated in six months lent a new urgency to her work. Not only is Alvarez an activist and a co-founder of the Minnesota-based movement Asamblea de Derechos Civilies (Assembly for Civil Rights), she is the mother of three DACA beneficiaries who stand to lose their legal status if legal protections aren’t reinstated.

Beginning on Dec. 4, Alvarez started a 10-day fast in Section 11 on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.,

hoping to bring attention to the need for the passage of a clean Dream Act, a bipartisan legislative effort at protection for Dreamers that both the House and Senate are considering. Each day, from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., Alvarez stands outside at Capitol Hill, talking with passerby and educating them about the Dream Act and those it effects. On Dec. 4, Senator Tim Kane from Virginia and Senator Christ Van Hollen from Maryland stopped by to talk with Alvarez, and she has invited people to join her for prayer onsite and in their own communities across the country. Daniel Galan of Chicago heard about Alvarez’s fast and traveled from Illinois to join her this week.

“We immigrants support the U.S. economy and we are a hard workers,” says Alvarez.  ”We have more abundance in this country, and that’s why we are here. We need to be recognized. This abundance is for everyone in this country, and we want Congress to recognize all people with dignity.”

Alvarez says she feels this work and this fast is her call from God to advocate not only on behalf of her own children but all 800,000 DACA beneficiaries, and she has taken three weeks off work in order to advocate.

“It’s a slow process to change the hearts and minds of people,” said Alvarez on Dec. 5. “It’s been 16 years, so no more waiting. This is the time.”

The Dream Act was first introduced in Congress in 2001. Alvarez says people across the country can support her through prayer and by taking the time to call their senators and representatives in Congress and asking them to support the Dream Act and other legislation that provides legal pathways to citizenship for DACA recipients and their families.

Ry Siggelkow, pastor of proclamation, witness and faith formation at Faith Mennonite Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota, also serves on the board of Asamblea de Derechos Civiles and participated in a Ride to Emancipation, a six-day advocacy journey from Minnesota to Washington, D.C., modeled on the Freedom Rides during the Civil Rights movement. Close to 50 riders demonstrated at Senator Chuck Grassley’s office in Iowa and Speaker of the House Paul Ryan’s office in Wisconsin before arriving in Washington to meet with Minnesota’s representatives and senators as well as other Christian leaders in the area. Siggelkow says Faith Mennonite has been working to find better ways to support their neighbors and the work of Asamblea, and participating in this trip was one way to do that.

“I believe this is where the Holy Spirit is,” said Siggelkow in a Dec. 4 phone interview. “I believe the Holy Spirit is active and present wherever people are being crucified, and it is so clear to me the Holy Spirit is with Asamblea and with Antonia.”

Siggelkow helped connect Alvarez with leaders from Mennonite Central Committee Washington and with Hyattsville (Maryland) Mennonite Church. On Dec. 3, Alvarez preached during Hyattsville’s Sunday morning service and invited church members to join her on Capitol Hill throughout the week. So far, several members of the congregation have spent time with her onsite, and members who work with organizations such as Sojourners and the National Council of Church are helping spread the word about her fast.

On Dec. 5, Hyattsville pastor Cindy Lapp joined Alvarez at Capitol Hill.

“It does feel to me like this this a time when there is so much going on, and we do need to take our faith to the next level in terms of putting our bodies where it matters and not just our heads and our hearts, and Antonia is giving us an opportunity to do that,” says Lapp. “We have to stand with our neighbors, and these are our neighbors. Antonia and Daniel came from across the country, but they represent people in my own community, too.”

This week, as Congress considers government budgets and pressure mounts to take action on behalf of Dreamers, several events are being planned in Washington. The Christian Community Development Association held a gathering of faith leaders at Speaker Paul Ryan’s office in Washington and at noon on Dec. 6, the organization United We Dream is calling on immigrant youth and allies to gather at the Capitol to call on Congress to take action.

“Every day, 122 immigrant youth like me lose their protections, and 10,980 have already lost their protection from deportation,” wrote United We Dream organizer Claudia Quiñonez. “This Dec 6, thousands of immigrant youth will join me to share our stories and show elected officials the impact of their inaction.”

Tammy Alexander, senior legislative associate for MCC Washington, says the organization is committed to helping get the word out about Alvarez’s fast and continues to call on people to support the passage of a “clean” Dream Act that wouldn’t offer protections for Dreamers while diverting extra funding for border enforcement.

“We don’t want to see protections for Dreamers traded for more enforcement that would impact their parents and communities,” she says.

Read more about Asamblea and also MCC Washington’s Action Alert on the Dream Act. To learn more, you can also read an interview with Tammy Alexander and Saulo Padilla talking about the decision to terminate the DACA program and read the 2013 Mennonite Church USA statement on immigration justice.