An immigrant 12-year-old boy and his mother from Nicaragua visited pastor Julie Contreras at church two weeks ago.
“Save my mother,” the boy said, crying and clutching her legs, Contreras told the Chicago Sun-Times.
His mother had received a text reminding her of an upcoming court hearing. Amid the detainments and deportations of immigrants across the country under the Trump administration, she didn’t know whether she should go but decided to, Contreras said.
“She wanted her paperwork,” Contreras said. “She wants to be legalized here. She cannot go back to her homeland of imminent danger.”
The woman never came home.
She was one of at least 10 immigrants detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement at a South Loop immigration office, Contreras said.
Contreras, a pastor at United Giving Hope in Waukegan, and other faith leaders, including the Rev. Michael Pfleger of St. Sabina Catholic Church, gathered outside the ICE field office in the Loop on Thursday for an eight-hour vigil opposing the immigration crackdown and praying for the federal agents to use their “discretion,” Contreras said.
“Wake up their conscience, oh, God,” Pfleger said during a prayer. “Open their eyes and open their hearts that they might know your spirit. Finally God, let them know that you will not remain silent.”
Since Trump returned to office in January, ICE has arrested more than 100,000 people for violating immigration law, according to the White House. Protests in all 50 states took to the streets Saturday opposing the Trump administration and ICE.
The protests were welcomed by some and criticized by others at the vigil. Pfleger and former state Sen. Jacqueline Collins applauded the protests, while Contreras accused protesters of “hijacking” the movement and inciting violence. Protests in Chicago have been largely peaceful.
“I didn’t see any of my families marching there,” Contreras said. “People are hijacking a struggle. They march, and they scream and they shout, and then they go home and close their doors.”
The group of six faith leaders and their supporters prayed and sang, surrounded by crosses and signs reading, “Freedom Libertad,” “No hate, no racism” and “Father God heal the USA.”
The group planned to walk around the ICE facility several times throughout the day. They knelt, held hands and raised their arms in prayer in front of the facility.
Pfleger didn’t mince words when describing the current immigration landscape and called on Congress and other elected officials to speak out.
“We’re living under a fascist regime,” Pfleger said. “The fact of the matter is that this administration is dehumanizing people, is criminalizing people, and we no longer have any rights in this country.”
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker have opposed the raids, stances that Pfleger praised. But Chicago police have provided ICE with key information about immigrants in the city, despite saying the department doesn’t assist federal immigration agents, the Sun-Times reported.
“It’s unconscionable,” Pfleger said. “Anybody that passes along information is a co-conspirator to this injustice.”
Since the immigration crackdown intensified, residents in Little Village and other immigrant communities have altered their daily routine, Baltazar Enriquez with the Little Village Community Council said. People are afraid to go to work and children are afraid to go to school, he said.
“A lot of the children are absolutely traumatized,” he said. “They don’t want to go to school. They’re afraid that if they go to school and they come home, Mom and Dad might be gone.”
Faith leaders at the vigil were adamant that prayer and their faith would push them through the difficulty of fighting against the Trump administration’s actions.
“Trump is not the last word — God is,” Pfleger said. “ICE is not the last word — God is.”