Friends, families and strangers alike stood together Tuesday evening, holding candles while singing “Lean on Me,” by Bill Withers — brought together to show support for the local immigrant community.
More than 150 people gathered from across Kansas, some coming from as far as Wichita, for a rally and vigil at St. Andrew Christian Church, 13890 W. 127th St., Olathe.
The event featured speakers from local immigrant advocate groups, religious organizations and Democratic state Rep. Melissa Oropeza from Wyandotte County.
The gathering was sponsored by a number of local nonprofits, including the Kansas Latino Community Network, El Centro, voting rights organization Loud Light and Kansas Interfaith Action.
“I’m an immigrant,” said Karla Juarez, executive director of Kansas City-based Advocates for Immigrant Rights and Reconciliation. “I don’t want our community — who is very fearful, anxious, isolated and everything in between — to continue feeling that way. I want them to know that every single person here is here to support them, to support us.”
“Surround yourself with other people who care”
Since President Donald Trump took office, more than 95,000 people have been arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to data from the University of California, Berkeley’s Deportation Data Project.
White House officials say ICE is targeting migrants with criminal histories, though the Guardian recently reported that between January and June, there was an 807% increase in immigrants with no criminal record being arrested.
Speakers at Tuesday evening’s event in Olathe advocated for immigrant-specific scholarships and spoke against plans to house immigrant detainees at a vacant private prison in Leavenworth.
They also told personal stories, from life growing up as an immigrant to having to tell a 6-year-old that their mother wasn’t coming home after being detained by ICE during a routine traffic stop.
“I’m in mourning for what our country is going through right now,” said Annette Becker of Lenexa, who attended the vigil. “The only way to keep going is to surround yourself with other people that care, care about justice and fairness and democracy. I knew I would find that here tonight.”
One of the speakers, Erica Andrade, president and chief executive officer of El Centro, which provides educational, social and economic services for Hispanic families in the Kansas City metro, said she fields a lot of “How are you?” questions these days.
While she said her first instinct is to tell everyone that she’s fine, she’s not.
“We are not fine. People are not fine, and that’s OK,” she said at Tuesday’s vigil. “As long as we can continue to work together; as long as we continue to engage with others; as long as we continue to show up for things like this; and most importantly, when it matters most, which is voting, then at least we can do our part to make things a little bit more fine.”
Event earlier Tuesday emphasized ballot access
The vigil wasn’t Andrade’s first stop of the day — she started her morning Tuesday speaking at Johnson County Square Park in downtown Olathe, at another event calling on local and state representatives to provide additional voting materials in Spanish.
“Language access does not harm anybody,” she said. “It does not harm the democracy of this country. It does not harm the rights of anybody. All it does is expand the voting rights for everyone, which is really important. It’s something we should all be very much supportive of — an informed community is a smart community.”
The American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas organized and hosted the event across the street from the Johnson County Courthouse. Micah Kubic, executive director of the ACLU of Kansas, said it was important the event happen in the week leading up to Independence Day.
“When we celebrate the Fourth of July, we are not just celebrating America, the place; America, our home,” Kubic said. “No, we are also celebrating America, the idea; America, the possibility; America, the aspiration. We are supporting and celebrating an idea that everyone counts, we are supporting an idea of freedom and justice and equality.”
Though it’s important to acknowledge those foundations of freedom, justice and equality, Kubic said, it’s also critical to realize they have not always existed for everyone in the United States.
“We ain’t there yet,” he said. “We still have some work to do — especially today, when democracy is under attack in this country.”
