Every week for about half a year, two separate groups have converged on 26 Federal Plaza, where masked ICE agents have routinely detained immigrants at their legally mandated court hearings.
One group prays; the other group protests and holds up documented images of detainees printed in amNewYork. The groups are vastly different, but their goals align.
For six months, amNewYork has documented federal agents’ unrelenting and sometimes violent arrests outside of courtrooms on the 12th and 14th floors, and every Thursday, New Yorkers with Rise and Resist gather outside the facility in silent protest.
Some cling to signs, others hold photos taken by amNewYork, and even the cover of the newspaper itself featuring the life of a mother and a young child after the patriarch of the family was taken into ICE detention.
“I think part of this group found out about a lot of what was happening through your posts,” Jackie Rudin said, referring to amNewYork. “We’re here because we can’t handle the atrocities on the 12th floor. It’s inhumane, it’s illegal, and it has to be stopped. We can’t stop shining a light on what’s happening. We have to keep spotlighting it.”
Rudin went on to add that seeing the images and videos emerging from the federal court building leaves her depressed and yearning to make some kind of a difference, which is why she joins the somber gathering each week.
“I just want to cry. I just feel helpless. We have to do whatever we can to stop it. I don’t know how to go up against these ICE thugs, because they have unlimited power, and they can do whatever they want, and laws don’t apply,” Rudin said.
Rudin is just one of many who turn out each week, lifting the images of detainments to not only passersby, but also to the federal workers themselves.
“We’re out here every Thursday with Rise and Resist to just hold a mirror up to the people that are working for our Customs and Border Patrol and ICE to let them know that they’re not welcome here in New York. We do not need them. New York is an immigrant city,” Jay Walker said. “It is destroying families for no reason. They’re not going after the worst of the worst. They’re not going after criminals. They’re going after people who are following the law and coming here to have their court cases.”
The power of prayer
Around the same time each week, Father Fabian Arias — pastor of Saint Peter’s Church, who has been donating his resources to aid families separated by ICE detention — leads a procession around the building. With a rosary in hand, he guides dozens around the complex seven times and at each lap makes a prayer in what he calls a Jericho walk.
“The reason that we pray is this is an injustice, and for the people who are missing,” Arias said. “Now we don’t know what is happening because a lot is happening on the 5th floor.”
Arias referred to an amNewYork report that indicated while many visible detainments have slowed outside of the courtrooms, the number of people being taken into custody at ICE check-ins on the 5th floor has drastically ramped up. Still, he says he will continue to come each week and pray for those who have suffered.
“We are walking together for that, pray for the injustice, and for the people to come back again,” Arias said.
