FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – June 20, 2018
Contact: Shannon Craig Straw, scstraw@westendstrategy.com, 202-674-5921
Faith Leaders to President Trump: We Will Not Be Easily Appeased; Executive Order is Not Enough
Thousands of clergy and faith leaders will hold actions at the border from Friday, June 22 through Sunday, June 24
SACRAMENTO – President Donald J. Trump today signed an executive order keeping families together in detention camps. Clergy with Faith in Action, the largest network of faith-based leaders in the world, and its state-based affiliate, PICO California, today warned that the president’s actions are too little too late. The group also announced a series of prayer vigils and demonstrations along the California-Mexico border to urge action to protect a group of people who are increasingly under attack by the Trump administration. The groups released the following statements:
“We will not be fooled or easily appeased. Children belong with their families in communities, not in internment camps,” said the Rev. Alvin Herring, executive director of Faith in Action, an international network of 39 federations and local groups in 21 states and three countries.
“At least 2,300 children remain unaccounted for and we want to know where those children are and a date when they’ll be returned to their parents,” said Joseph Tomás Mckellar, co-director of PICO California. “Today’s executive order was designed to silence the moral outrage following this administration’s policy of stealing children from their parents. The only way to truly make this right is to reunite all children who were separated from their parents at the border to their mothers and fathers, and place them in our communities, not in cages.”
“We said all along that President Trump had the authority to end family separation with the stroke of a pen. He went from blaming Democrats to using the pen we all knew he had. But there’s still a problem: the president’s plan to stop the abuse of children is a jail sentence, not a solution,” said Richard Morales, campaign director for Faith in Action’s LA RED immigrant justice campaign. “President Trump must immediately end his ‘zero tolerance’ policy which wrongly criminalizes immigrants, destabilizes communities and leaves children and families vulnerable to targeting and abuse.”
“Persons fleeing violence should be able to seek safe refuge in this country, and we will fight to make this ideal a reality,” Morales continued. “That’s why we’ll be along the border this weekend; organizing prayer groups, vigils and demonstrations. We invite people of faith to join us in lamenting the crisis involving our families.”
Faith in Action will launch a summer of prophetic resistance beginning Thursday, June 21, in Washington, D.C. The organization will join its state-based affiliate, PICO California, for a series of prayer vigils, actions and demonstrations along the U.S./Mexico border from Friday, June 22 through Sunday, June 24. Details for each event are listed below. Media RSVP is requested for confirmation of location for border events. All times are local.
- Thursday, June 21 at 10 a.m.
Prayer and Demonstration with Children
Capitol Hill – Russell Senate Building
- Friday, June 22, 7 p.m.
Interfaith Prayer Service and Call to Action
Our Lady of Mount Carmel
- Friday, June 22, Evening
Dinner and Lodging in Church Hall
Our Lady of Mount Carmel
**Please bring your sleeping bags**
- Saturday, June 23, Morning
Training and Preparation Meeting
Our Lady of Mount Carmel
- Saturday, June 23, 10:00 a.m.
Morning Prayer, Lamentation, and Action
Our Lady of Mount Caramel
- Saturday, June 23, 1:00 p.m.
March and demonstration along the border
(Exact location will be provided on Friday, June 22)
- Saturday, June 23, Evening
Candlelight vigil along the border
(Exact location will be provided on Friday, June 22)
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Faith in Action, formerly known as PICO National Network, is the largest grassroots, faith-based organizing network in the United States. The nonpartisan organization works with 1,000 religious congregations in more than 200 cities and towns through its 45 local and state federations. For more information visit www.faithinaction.org.
Created in 2015, LA RED is a program of Faith in Action focused on immigrant rights, indigenous rights, education, and advocacy. LA RED is committed to the protection and security of immigrant communities through various means of resistance, including deportation defense, sanctuary advocacy and fighting for the rights of all immigrants including undocumented workers and families, DREAMers, and TPS holders.
