EL PASO — On a sunny morning about 40 people gathered in a circle for a weekly interfaith prayer vigil outside the federal building that houses immigration courtrooms.
Rev. Marta Pumroy with the Tres Rios Presbyterian Border Foundation led the group in song and prayer.
"This is happening across our country, and this is something we need, people of all faiths and all traditions to show up, to stand up, to raise their voice," said Pumroy.
In El Paso young and old, advocates and everyday people, show up and volunteer to observe immigration hearings where ICE agents, often masked, detain people. It's part of the Trump administration's effort to carry out mass deportations.
"I feel it's my calling because someone needs to bear witness to what is going on inside the courtroom," Bonnie Daniels said.
A self-described fronteriza, a native of the border, she was born and raised in El Paso. Daniels is in the courtroom three to four times a week for the people who face being removed from the country.
"There were people here who cared, who know them by name, who held their hand, comforted them and did what we can to assist them during this awful ordeal that's going on right now," Daniels said.
The prayer vigil includes a moment to share experiences. Daniels talked about seeing a desperate man from Venezuela who faced being returned to his country "And he says I want to go to the top and jump. Thankfully the nuns talked him out of it."
Sister Leticia Gutierrez Balderrama was one of those nuns. The Director of the Migrant Hospitality Ministry of the Dioceses de El Paso says many of the people appearing in immigration court find strength in their faith.
"People don't lose their faith. On the contrary, they ask God to be with them as they make their court appearances," Gutierrez said.
Along with spiritual support, the nuns and other volunteers provide practical help including making sure relatives have contact information so they can find and track their loved ones after they're detained by ICE.
"It's really hard to see this," Rev. Sondra Jones, Deacon at St. Christopher's Episcopal Church said.
"They're being taken. We don't know where they're going. We don't know when we'll see them again," she said, referring to the painful moment when families watch ICE agents take their loved ones into custody.
Volunteer Dee Anne Croucher brings toys, stickers and coloring books for the children waiting outside the courtroom for a parent. When the hearing is over and ICE moves in, it's confusing for the kids, she said.
"Even when the mom breaks down crying and they're taking her away and the children are all marching by her side, I don't think they really understand what's happening either," Croucher said.
Some children face immigration court hearings of their own. Croucher remembers a child accompanied by her mother.
"And of course she had dressed her up. She looked like she was going to Easter Sunday in her little white dress and her little white shoes," Croucher said. "And the order was for the child to appear. A 3-year-old. Of course, they didn't detain her, but we never know."
At the weekly vigil there are prayers for migrants, people seeking asylum and their families. But the gathering is also for the volunteers who see the human toll at immigration court.
"Having people speak about it, and watch it and witness, and share those stories starts restoring and building that humanity," Rev. Pumroy said.
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