With reports of ICE at churches, Southern California’s faithful find healing, hope in prayer ...Middle East

Faith has been a guiding compass for Ann Burdette, who attends St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Long Beach.

Last weekend, Burdette, 75, took part in a peaceful demonstration in Paramount, near the Home Depot site of a federal immigration raid targeting day laborers last Friday. She wanted to use her peace-keeping skills as a longtime activist, helping to de-escalate growing tensions between law enforcement and protestors.

While protesting on the open street, Burdette said her first instinct was to get on her knees, head bowed in a humble prayer posture.

Then it happened fast — on one side, a bus sent to pick up detainees barrelled toward her; on the other, pepper spray from a law enforcement officer pelted her face, she said.

“It didn’t get into my eyes since my face was down. But it was chilling,” Burdette said. “I consider non-violence as sacred, which my faith tells me is important — it’s an instinct honed during the civil rights movement. When all else is lost, when it seems there is no other recourse, prayer is where I go.”

With escalating tensions between immigration advocates and agents following federal orders to detain immigrants across Southern California, people of faith, like Burdette, are turning to their beliefs to try and make sense of what’s happening.

From protesters on the front lines to pastors preaching to their congregations, many say immigrants, and the community at large, are looking for answers in times of fear and hopelessness.

Burdette, in her decades of protesting peacefully for civil rights, women’s rights, and in anti-war demonstrations, said she had never been involved in any violent encounters until that Saturday.

After all that happened, she said it was “nice to have church the next day, to decompress,” and encouraged fellow church-goers to continue showing up in places of worship if they feel safe to do so. Having a spiritually supportive and protected space is important for immigrants — for anyone — to feel less alone, she said.

But many fear that supposedly safe sanctuaries could be violated by immigration enforcement. On Wednesday afternoon, June 11, leaders and residents expressed their sorrow and anger after ICE agents arrested an unidentified man at a Christian church in Downey.

Houses of worship should be preserved as sanctuaries, said Pastor Ivan Pitts of Second Baptist Church in Santa Ana, adding that Jesus Christ “never denied someone their humanity. He challenged people to do better, to go and sin no more.”

“Whether you’re an ICE agent or illegal immigrant, you should be able to sit and pray together, with no fear,” Pitts said. “The church is supposed to be a safe place — if you can’t go there, there is no place you can go.”

ICE agents were also reported Wednesday at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church in Downey, but officials said the activity took place outside of church grounds and did not involve anyone at the church, said Archdiocese of L.A. spokesperson Yannina Diaz on Thursday.

At least 14 members of the Episcopal Diocese of L.A. were detained as part of ICE raids over the weekend, diocese leaders said.

There were no further confirmed reports of ICE activity known at L.A., Orange County and Inland area places of worship, as of Thursday afternoon.

Faith leaders pray — and rally

At multiple immigrants’ rights protests and vigils, local pastors, rabbis, imams, leaders and community members representing diverse faith traditions have walked Los Angeles streets in peaceful prayer, echoing calls to stop ongoing ICE operations as part of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign.

Other more conservative faith leaders were adamant about their stance on Trump’s immigration orders.

“I support 100% President Trump’s goal of protecting our country from evildoers, whether from within or without,” said Rev. Robert Jeffress, a Southern Baptist pastor in Dallas. “The president has authority from the Constitution and the Bible to do exactly what he’s doing.”

At a special Catholic “Mass for the Preservation of Peace and Justice” on Wednesday, June 13, at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in downtown L.A., attendees gathered and sang popular hymns “Let There Be Peace on Earth” and the “Prayer of St. Francis.”

L.A. Archbishop José H. Gomez and Diocese of Orange Bishop Kevin Vann co-celebrated the Mass. In his homily, Gomez lifted up prayers “for peace in our streets and in our city.”

“We are facing a challenging moment. Many of our neighbors are frightened; there’s too much tension, uncertainty and violence,” Gomez said. “We pray for our neighbors who are hurting; good, hardworking men and women, people of faith. We pray for the police and for all those who put their lives on the line to keep our communities safe, and for our leaders.”

Meanwhile, Vann and other bishops from the Diocese of Orange, criticized how enforcement operations have begotten widespread fear in the community, calling on the country’s leaders to instead focus on “thoughtful change.”

“Immigration laws have their place in society, as does enforcement of them, particularly to apprehend known criminals,” their statement said. “But there is also a place for enforcment that does not invoke our worst instincts, that does not spread crippling fear and anxieties upon the hard-working, everyday faithful among us.”

On social media, San Bernardino Diocese Bishop Alberto Rojas shared prayers “for our immigrant brothers and sisters — especially the families within our own diocese who now live with renewed fear and uncertainty. These are not strangers to us — they are our neighbors, our parishioners, our friends.”

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The Diocese of San Bernardino offers immigration resources, from citizenship courses and “Know Your Rights” trainings, to legal workshops and ESL classes. Officials have close relationships with Guatemalan, Salvadoran and Mexican consulates to help people process citizenship applications and obtain legal documentation, said Wilfredo Aguirre, who works with the Office of Justice for Immigrants.

Having these faith-based resources — especially through the local church, a place people can trust — is crucial for those in need, Aguirre said.

“The teaching of the church is that we protect life from conception to natural death, and we advocate for every aspect of human life, created in the image of God. When we round up people indignantly, as if they were cattle — or describe them as collaterals, criminals or rapists — we are denying their dignity. And that’s what we, at the church, are trying to fight,” Aguirre said.

“At the heart of all this is our Christian value, the idea of hope,” said Aguirre. “We are a religion, a faith, a people of hope.”

Community organizer Beatriz, who asked not to publish her last name due to immigration safety concerns, works with Inland Congregations United for Change, a nonprofit made up of over 60 faith congregations serving the Inland Valley. She said that, though growing ICE operations across the Southland have stoked fear in communities, it’s also sparked compassion in action.

“People of faith in our network are feeling compassion for those being taken by ICE,” she said in Spanish.

“Our brothers and sisters are hard-working people with dignity. They’re business owners and essential workers. But before all of that, they are brothers and sisters created in the image of God, and they are deserving of life, dignity and respect,” Beatriz said.

Luz Gallegos, the executive director of TODEC Legal Center, works directly with Latino immigrant communities across the Inland region, hosting “Know Your Rights” workshops and participating in rallies. She said that Latinos are a “resilient people of faith. “

“A lot of workers tell us before they leave for work, they pray to Jesus, asking Him to take care of them and their families, and even their neighbors,” she said. “Faith brings a lot of strength within our community.”

Gallegos emphasized the importance of taking actions to protect oneself and neighbors, while also staying faithful in prayer.

“During these difficult times, we can’t rely on faith on its own,” she said. “We have to know preventive measures and actions to keep us and our families safe.”

From pulpits to the front lines

The work of faith leaders, said Pastor Lee de León of Templo Calvario Church in Santa Ana, is to advocate for the well-being of all congregants, regardless of legal status, and to work with leadership “to ensure the safety of the most vulnerable of our community.”

“As faith leaders, God’s call to us is to work for the peace and prosperity of our city. When that is being destroyed or challenged, we must speak up,” de León said.

“As people of faith, we are called upon to love your neighbor as yourself, regardless of where they come from, and we are to welcome the stranger,” said Rev. Karen Davis, pastor of First Christian Church in Glendora and a member of the Glendora City Council.

“Joseph, Mary and Jesus themselves were refugees fleeing into Egypt, and with that in mind, we are to offer compassion, kindness and allow for due process,” said Davis, who also serves as chaplain of the city’s police department. “As people of faith, we are to stand with and speak up for ‘the least of these.’”

For Hussam Ayloush, the fight for immigrant rights hits home. He said activism is a “mandate” of his beliefs.

“The Quran says that God bestowed dignity to all human beings. Justice and seeking justice for all people is a core tenet in Islamic faith,” Ayloush said.

“When I see Brown and Black people being attacked, whether in L.A. being beaten up or being banned from coming to this country, I see people who look like me, who look like my wife and my children,” Ayloush said. “Our country was built on the foundation of liberty and justice for all people, but as U.S. history shows, we haven’t always been true to those values.”

In his most recent Sunday sermon, Rev. Christopher Montella of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Santa Clarita talked about honoring the dignity of all people, regardless of status. He urged his congregation to remove all judgment, fear and hate.

“Is our immigration and asylum-seeking process broken? Yes. Is the answer to just scoop up all those who might be undocumented residents and ship them out to detention camps? No,” Montella said. “If we are truly going to live into the truth of the Spirit, then we must do better. We must be better as a society.”

L.A. United Methodist Church Bishop Dottie Escobedo-Frank said she was “brokenhearted” by the uptick in ICE activity, and called on “all Christ-following people, and on all tenderhearted people, to stand with those who are being ripped apart from their families… be witnesses on the streets so that the horror does not happen under cover. Pray for justice to prevail, because we all know that without justice, there is no peace. Use your power for good, and not for evil.”

As anti-ICE raid protests continue to spread, leaders nationally have shared messages of solidarity.

Zach Lambert, lead pastor at Restore Church in Austin, Texas, has been closely following the immigration enforcement operations and protests in L.A., noting that his church is home to a significant Latino population, as well as many LGBTQ+ congregants.

With “very real fears” among the community, his message to all is to “consider the words Jesus spoke during his Sermon on the Mount: ‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God’.” He noted the difference from “peacekeepers,” from those looking the other way when injustice happens.

Peacemakers, on the other hand, “step into situations courageously to make a Christlike difference,” he said.

“We are never more like God than when we are peacemaking,” said Lambert, noting examples of clergy during the Civil Rights movement, including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who stepped into tangible leadership roles. In times of unrest, Lambert said, churches need to adopt a message of solidarity, and people need to “develop an imagination for how to become a peacemaker.”

Staff writers Anissa Rivera, Kristy Hutchings and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

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