A crowd of more than 50 quietly took to the grounds of the England Airpark Saturday, the site of one of ICE’s busiest deportation hubs, as part of a national day of action against ICE’s detention expansion.
Attendees, many clad in white and blue in a show of solidarity with detainees, stood in silence as they witnessed dozens of detainees chained together on the tarmac loading into planes headed to unknown destinations.
“When I saw those people through that chain link fence I put myself there,” said Rosilin Wilson-Scott who traveled from Shreveport for the vigil. “I’m thinking they’re wondering, ‘Where am I going? What is happening?’ They’re in jail for doing nothing other than trying to be a part of something that has been sold as being so great.”
Attendees said they gathered to express their disgust at Alexandria’s cooperation with ICE. They raised concerns about the morality of jailing women and children on grounds that have been found to be contaminated with ‘forever chemicals’.
Pastor Leigh Rachel of the Louisiana Interfaith Conference called for communities of faith to stand with immigrant communities.
“It is not humane to put families in detention centers where we have mistreatments and even deaths,” said Rachel. “I think it’s disheartening to see the increase in ICE activity that’s tearing families apart and tearing communities apart.
Martin Floyd said he showed up as a veteran who took an oath to protect the country and saw his protest of the family detention center as a part of that oath.
“These people just want a life here like we all want,” said Floyd.
