The usual hustle and bustle of protests — the loud chants, megaphones and fists in the air — was absent on Thursday afternoon as faith leaders and activists sat in meditation outside San Francisco City Hall, starting a hunger strike to protest ICE.
About 100 rabbis, reverends and activists gathered on the City Hall steps to start a 24-hour fast to condemn what they called Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s militaristic and violent policies.
Some of the faith leaders were barefoot, sitting cross-legged on yoga mats on the cement steps; others wore stoles painted with butterflies, a symbol of migration. Still more walked in slow circles, wearing posters around their necks displaying photos of immigrants who have died in ICE custody.
At least four people have died in ICE custody so far this year, according to the Detention Watch Network, and 32 people died in the agency’s detention centers and holding cells last year, which the Guardian said was the highest total in two decades.
Democrats in Congress on Thursday sent a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, demanding she improve conditions.
There have been no ICE custody deaths in San Francisco, but the American Civil Liberties Union and other civil rights groups sued ICE last year, alleging its holding cells downtown were “freezing” and “inhumane.”
A federal judge ruled that the conditions were likely unconstitutional, and ordered ICE to improve them, but attorneys said at the end of December that the agency had not done so.
Thursday’s protest was organized by the Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity, and organizers said it was intended to “resist the violence inflicted on our own neighbors, friends, and families.”
In a crowd largely composed of older adults, a young girl wearing a pink jacket and riding a pink tricycle with streamers stood out as she rode her bike amid a somber march of faith leaders.
Omar, a construction worker from Mexico who wore a yellow vest, said he happened upon the meditation during a break from his work, across the street.
“I am grateful for it all,” he said in Spanish before returning to his job.
Near 1 p.m., the sun began to shine through the clouds, and the megaphones emerged. What had begun as a silent meditation and walk turned into a rally, with faith leaders speaking to a crowd of about 100 people.
“It’s important to acknowledge that there are a lot of things that happen in our city that are unseen,” Reverend Bruce Reyes-Chow from the Presbyterian Church said “It’s telling the rest of the world that we are still paying attention.”
Another faith leader participating in the hunger strike is Reverend Ranwa Hammamy, an organizer with the Unitarian Universalist Association.
“We want ICE out of Minnesota and ICE out of our communities. We want ICE to no longer be funded,” Hammamy said.
When asked whether elected officials had been notified of the protest, she said that they have had conversations at the state and federal level around changing immigration policy to be less “inhumane.”
“I hope that it gets attention, and that more people will join us” in the fight, said Julie Litwin, a member of the Kehilla Community Synagogue who lives in the East Bay.
What will these resistance folks think of next?
Suggestions: “Eat a low calorie dessert to protest ICE.”
“Look away from the screen for the first 6 minutes of the NFC Championship to protest ICE.”
Or if they REALLY want to show they’re serious …
“Switch to decaf for 12 hours to protest ICE.”
THAT will surely end deportations. How could the Trump administration resist?
Let it be 24 months!
It’s not a “hunger strike” if you simply don’t eat for a day. It is merely a symbolic gesture.
Yeah, “hunger strike” seems to be more about code-wording: using loaded cultural phrases to break through the attention barrier. If you scroll YouTube you should be acquainted with it by now.
I guess this would be more accurately a “hunger fast?” but really, who cares about semantics at a time like this.
Anyway, what matters in the end is wether it continues as a Sustained protest, or becomes a one-off that people forget.
Only 24 hours? Weak.
Let’s test their commitment to their cause. If they can do a hunger strike for 32 consecutive 24-hour periods, they’ll have earned respect.