The Trump administration’s deportation of more than a hundred Iranians held in ICE custody on a flight that touched down in Tehran on Sept. 29 includes Christian converts and other religious minorities who may face harsh penalties for their religious beliefs upon return to the Islamic Republic.
A 25-foot mural at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan, unveiled and blessed during Sunday Mass on Sept. 21, honors generations of immigrants to New York, taking on a new meaning in today’s political climate.
Strangers in the Land, the recently published book by New Yorker editor Michael Luo, chronicles the journey of Chinese immigrants to the American West, and then eastward across the country. Perhaps inevitably, it is also an account of the violence and bigotry directed against them, which only became more intense as the boom years of the Western Gold Rush gave way to the economic downturn that followed the Civil War.
“I think faith is what many people who are detained say sustains them. It’s what gives them a sense to continue to fight for their case and to support other people who may be struggling inside of the detention center.”
Mexican festivities are scheduled to take place this weekend all over the country. Sadly, because of the current administration’s persecution of immigrants, many are afraid to go out and celebrate. Major cities like Chicago have already announced they will be scaling down their plans for the celebrations owing to security concerns for those attending. Yet Mexicans are not known to miss a party.
Early on Sunday morning (Aug. 24), a dozen activists prayed in a circle before the barbed-wire gates of Delaney Hall, the 1,100-bed immigrant detention center that is the largest on the East Coast.
The agency’s apparent turn to Scripture comes as it seeks to recruit U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement employees, whose agents are pivotal in the Trump administration’s forceful immigration crackdown.
