For Immediate Release:
Aug. 8, 2019
Media Contacts:
Janine Walsh (203) 685-1856 | walsh@franciscanaction.org
Franciscan Action Network Decries Inhumanity of ICE Raid in Mississippi
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Images of children crying for their parents who were seized in an ICE raid on food processing plants in Mississippi are both heartbreaking and outrageous. The Franciscan Action Network is horrified and angry that our government is so inhumane as to sweep up nearly 700 workers without a thought or care about the children left abandoned after their first day in school and babies left in daycare without a parent or guardian to pick them up. These are not images from some war-torn country, but from one state in the United States of America, where thousands of immigrants had hoped to escape violence in their own countries and find a safe place to call home, to work to provide for their families and contribute to their communities. These are not the rapists, drug dealers, or murderers that the administration claims are crossing our southern border. Every American should be horrified by this enforcement action which has left children homeless and plants without workers in the largest single-state workplace ICE raid in US history. FAN’s executive director, Patrick Carolan stated, “How a country treats its children is a measure of the moral fiber of that country. These images depict a country whose government shreds that fiber.” We must call on this administration to stop these anti-immigrant, racially motivated ICE raids.
Caring neighbors have taken in children left without parents. What happens to these children now? The Mayor of Jackson Mississippi rightly condemned the raids. He also called on faith institutions “to become sanctuaries for our immigrant neighbors and protect them from potential harm. The City of Jackson strongly objects to the Trump administration’s ICE raids,” as quoted in a statement released today from his office. As often happens, faith institutions will come to the immediate rescue when governments engage in atrocious actions. Our faith as Franciscan Christians commands us to love our neighbor, welcome the stranger, and reach out to assist the most vulnerable people among us. The gospel of Matthew, Chapter 25, tells us that on this we will be judged. Who is more vulnerable than children and babies crying for their parents who have been taken away from them? What will happen to these children now?
###