Emma Ruby
Audio By Carbonatix
Faith leaders from across the Dallas area gathered at the Kessler Park United Methodist Church on Friday to condemn federal immigration enforcement actions across the United States and plans for a new ICE detention facility in Hutchins, a town that is around 12 miles south of downtown Dallas.
Friday’s gathering was organized by the Clergy League for Emergency Action and Response (CLEAR), which has supported immigrant communities in Dallas since last spring and holds prayer vigils outside the Dallas ICE field office on Monday mornings. The Rev. Eric Folkerth, lead pastor at Kessler Park UMC, said that what he has witnessed over the last year has convinced him that opposing ICE’s actions is a moral imperative.
“Over the months, we have seen a disturbingly harsh treatment of migrants,” said Folkerth. “I know we are all horrifically disturbed by what is happening in Minneapolis. We decry violence of any form. We believe in the rule of law as faith leaders.”
The gathering coincided with a multi-faith service held in Minneapolis on Friday afternoon to show support for immigrant communities and protest ICE. The Twin Cities have become a hotbed for immigration enforcement activity over the last month, with accusations of fraud amongst the Somali immigrant community, the killing of Renee Good and widespread arrests inflaming tensions between community members and federal agents.
Hundreds of people attended the Minnesota service, CBS News reports, and leaders of synagogues, mosques and churches of all denominations travelled from across the U.S. to attend. Albeit a smaller gathering, Dallas’ assembly amplified similar messages of unity.
The leaders also offered a solemn warning.
In December, a Washington Post investigation outlined plans for an industrial warehouse in Hutchins to be turned into the nation’s second-largest immigration detention facility. The proposed Hutchins warehouse is one of seven large-scale centers outlined in documents obtained by the Post.
According to the Washington Post’s reporting, government documents state the new, larger warehouse centers will help “speed up deportations by establishing a deliberate feeder system” through proximity to “major logistical hubs.”
Hutchins officials have spoken out against the facility, in part because it’s something that the town’s infrastructure can’t support, said Carl Oscar Sherman, Minister of the Church of Christ in Hutchins and a former state representative and mayor of DeSoto.
“If we sit back and do nothing, if we think that it can’t happen where we live, if you just can’t imagine that it would ever happen in your own hometown, that could be the next city, the next community that faces it,” Oscar Sherman said. “Immigrants continue to be detained, even while following the established norms and adhering to the rules. Justice demands that we speak up, justice demands that we honor God’s word and justice demands that we respect local control.”
The faith leaders expressed concern about the prospective conditions in a detention center the size of the one being discussed in Hutchins; the closest current facility to Dallas is the Prairieland Detention Center near Alvarado, which holds a mere 700 people, less than a tenth of what the proposed Hutchins facility would.
While the Department of Homeland Security has resisted sharing much information publicly about the warehouse center plans, the Dallas leaders speculated that a nearly 10,000-person facility would quickly devolve into unsanitary conditions that are “inhumane and it is not in accordance with American values,” much less “spiritual values.”
“Our understanding is that there are county officials who are very concerned about this. There are people in the city of Hutchins who are very concerned about this,” said Folkerth. “Please give them support and courage at this moment. There are hopefully some legal things they can do to help slow down this human warehouse.”
