Episcopal News Service –

Episcopalians from across the Diocese of Massachusetts joined a large group of community members on Sept. 16 in rallying behind an immigrant from Honduras before she appeared at a morning appointment with federal immigration officials.

Organizers estimate about 500 people attended the event outside the Burlington office of U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement to support Blanca Martinez, an asylum-seeker who fears deportation under the Trump administration’s policies. Martinez attends St. Peter’s-San Pedro Episcopal Church in Salem and has lived and worked as a house cleaner in the area for the past decade after fleeing violence in her home country.

“Thank you so much for being here … I want to thank God because he has sustained me until this day,” Martinez told the crowd in Spanish through an interpreter before her appointment. The rally was livestreamed on her church’s Facebook page. “I am here today speaking up for myself and for so many more people who are suffering in silence.”

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