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Who will speak?

Faces of the seven children and infants who have died in the U.S. Government detention centers haunt me. Their photos hung in a cage at the Prayer Service held in Solidarity with the Catholic Day of Action for Immigrant Children to bring awareness of the inhumane treatment of immigrant children who are being incarcerated on our borders.

Countless children have been separated from their mothers and fathers by authorities. This horror story continues.

On the first day of school in Morton, Miss., many children returned to empty homes. Their parents were jailed earlier that day by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. ICE perpetrated massive raids on seven meat processing plants on the first day of school!

This is deplorable! Bishop Joseph Kopacz, who heads the Diocese of Jackson, Miss., likened the use of 600 federal agents in this immigration attack as an “invasion.”

I have ties with people in Morton, and over the years have spent time with the Franciscan Sisters ministering there. I met countless parents and families willing to work hard to simply provide a safe life for their children. They don’t deserve to be treated like criminals.

The sung response used at the recent prayer service keeps resounding in my soul, “Who will speak, if I don’t? Who will speak if we don’t? Who will speak so their voice will be heard?  Oh, who will speak if we don’t?”

We need to be supportive voices for our immigrant sisters and brothers, especially for the children.  We need to continue to contact the White House and our elected officials with renewed strength and demand that this inhumane treatment ends, for who will speak if we don’t?

This Post Has 8 Comments
  1. Nancy, thanks for sharing about your personal connection with the people in Morton. It’s easy and quick to email whitehouse.gov and leave a comment.

  2. Thank you for your thoughts! We must be a voice for those held voiceless!! I will continue to contact our two Senators and the White House!!! The hard part…I don’t think they are HEARING!!!! But try we MUST!! Blessings on you for reminding us, Nancy!!!!

  3. Sometimes it seems so overwhelming and then I remind myself of Mahatma Gandhi’s famous quote: “Whatever you do will be insignificant, and it’s very important that you do it.”

    Thank you for all the notes and prompts to send letters, make calls and write. It really does help me take action.

  4. Thanks for these heartbreaking and challenging thoughts and prayers. And gratitude for all that you are doing for OSF and BVM.
    Encourages me to keep on writing, calling and learning and praying.

    Marilyn

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