Advocates Mark One Year of Witness, Resistance at GEO Detention Center

Romero Troupe

Members of the Romero Troupe dramatize the desensitizing which leads to discrimination against and oppression of immigrants.

Photo: 

Marielle Oetjen

Copyright: 

AFSC

On May 3, 2010, about 250 immigrant rights advocates marked their first year of witness at the GEO Detention Center for immigrants in Aurora, Colorado. Participating groups included the American Friends Service Committee, Romero Theater Troupe,  Interfaith Alliance of Colorado, Comunidad Liberación/Liberation Community, 10:30 Catholic Community and faith communities and allies from across Denver, Aurora, and Fort Collins.

We started with an opening prayer, then gathered to hear Juan Manual Patraca recite amazing poetry, then watched the Romero Troupe put on a theater piece. The piece showed people sitting down to watch tv, hearing fear inciting things and gradually becoming deadened to the world around them, at which point they donned a white mask.

Then the white masked people formed a circle and detained immigrants inside the circle. Immigrant family members eventually gently removed each person’s mask and recruited them to immigrant justice. Then we encircled the center in a human chain of solidarity, chanting and drumming.

Every day 1,000 migrants are rounded up and deported; workers are picked up on their jobs; children are literally ripped away from their mothers when agents ransack homes in the middle of the night, and students are detained and deported on their way to school. As ethical and faith communities, we call on Congress and President Obama to pass just and humane immigration reform and to end unjust enforcement and division of our communities.

For more info, contact Jennifer Piper, Interfaith Organizing Director for Immigrant Rights

American Friends Service Committee

901 W. 14th Ave. #7, Denver, Colorado 80204

303-623-3464 (phone) & 303-623-3492 (fax)

http://coloradansforimmigrantrights.blogspot.com - The CFIR Blog!