As global events like the World Cup come to the area, advocates and faith leaders are pledging to support local immigrants at risk of detention.

At an interfaith rally and vigil on Thursday night at Asbury United Methodist Church in Prairie Village, about 100 people joined in a call to action to fight against anti-immigration legislation and protect local immigrants against agencies like U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

During the 90-minute rally, 10 speakers from different beliefs and careers, ranging from El Centro, a local organization that provides educational, social and economic services to Hispanic families in the Kansas City area, to faith-based leaders like Rev. Rick Behrens of Grandview Park Presbyterian Church in Kansas City, Kansas, reflected on wins and setbacks, remarking on the detention of some immigrants over the past year.

“Tonight is a step in reclaiming voices silenced and giving light to those who need to know that they are seen, and loved and welcomed here,” said Asbury United Methodist Church Rev. Jeff Prothro.

Speakers also focused on future protections for immigrants in the area.

“The challenge is we need to do the hard work now, mobilizing individuals that are going to vote at the next elections, to start making some change, to start actually seeing the reflection of what we want to see in our communities,” said Erica Andrade, CEO of El Centro.

The rally served as a call to motivate advocates

Taking stock of events that have happened to immigrants over the past year, several speakers, including Diosselyn Tot, of the Kansas Latino Community Network, celebrated Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto of Senate Bill 254 in April, which aimed to prohibit undocumented immigrants from receiving state or local public benefits, including in-state tuition. 

“This year, we pushed back, we organized, we showed up, we spoke out, and we unified. And with a lot of work in the background, the motion to reconsider the veto never came. So we won. We stopped the bill, and this meant so much to many of us,” Tot said.

They also noted times when they felt they lost what they were fighting for, like Leavenworth City Council officials allowing a private prison to reopen to house detained immigrants in March.

“Those are our people, our friends and our neighbors who are being detained and sent there,” Ashley Hernandez, the organizing and policy coordinator for the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth, said at the rally.

Other speakers detailed times during the past year when they were targeted by ICE, like Jess Ferrell, executive director of Center of Grace, a community center in Olathe that offers basic health and education, who said she encountered armed ICE agents outside one of their classroom windows in February. Center of Grace is close by to the Boys & Girls Club, where multiple witnesses also reported seeing ICE activity that same day.

“I don’t know who all of you are in this room, and I don’t know what you believe, but I would say this about most people in this community: I would want to think, and I choose to believe, that we can all agree that terrifying children, ages 5 to 12, is unacceptable. The targeting and detaining parents in front of their children is unacceptable,” she said.

Advocates are preparing for what’s next

During the gathering and after, people in attendance acknowledged that attention to immigration enforcement issues has lessened over the past six months. But their fight is not over.

“It’s important to keep this issue in the public eye and for predominantly white houses in faith to rise up together and say ‘Immigrants are our neighbors,'” Rabbi Moti Rieber, with Kansas Interfaith Action, said at the rally. “They are not strangers, but integral parts of our communities and our lives, where we will witness and speak up for justice for them.”

With the World Cup coming to Kansas City and international teams staying in Johnson County, advocates said they expect ICE to increase its presence in the area.

“It should be a moment of celebration, but it’s becoming a moment of fear for a lot of immigrants. So we have to make plans to protect ourselves. We have to take the lead to take care of ourselves, because systems are not taking care of us,” said Carolyne Muriu, a representative for Advocates for Immigrant Rights and Reconciliation and an immigrant from Kenya.

Afterward, social justice advocates like Saaliha Khan said the mixtures of people of different races, religions and backgrounds at the vigil gives her hope for the future.

“It’s so powerful. It’s inspiring, it’s grounding, it’s heart-wrenching and heartwarming. You know, as a person of color, as a Muslim, as a Kansan, as an American,” she said to the Johnson County Post.

She added: “We’re sending one strong message that love will overcome hate, and that our immigrant brothers and sisters should know that they are not in this alone, despite the fear mongering that’s happening … We are here to stand beside you, care for you, protect you, and work for justice, no matter what that looks like.”

See other scenes from Thursday’s vigil: