About 500 Valley residents, including those from Merced, joined about 500 others through the Faith in the Valley organization to visit the San Ysidro border and the privately-run Otay Mesa Detention Center on June 23, officials said.

Ojeda said the trip to the San Ysidro border brought back memories of her own immigration story.

“At the age of six, I remember being on the other side of that border,” Ojeda said.

Ojeda said the unknown treatment of the detained immigrant children brought additional concern into the way the federal government was handling immigration enforcement.

“And here, I was feeling guilty now that I was on the other side of that border,” she said. “If this experience alone was traumatizing for me, I cannot imagine how they will grow up to be having to carry such pain with them.”

The group, composed of clergies of all religions and state Senator Kevin De Leon, D-Los Angeles, marched on the detention center risking arrest, said Yolanda Trevino, a leader with Faith in the Valley.

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