Church Protests Amid Escalating ICE Brutality
Plus the latest writing from the Convocation team.
This week we talk about the recent autopsy reports that reveal the escalating brutality of ICE. Renee Goode’s autopsy revealed that she was shot four times in rapid succession. Another autopsy report this week revealed that the death of migrant Geraldo Lunas Campos, who was in ICE custody at an internment camp in Texas, was unlikely a suicide as the government claimed but caused by wounds consistent with strangling by a third party. A witness testified seeing Campos handcuffed, restrained by multiple guards who squeezed his neck until he passed out. We also emphasized that a small number of Republicans in Congress could potentially stop these immoral, harmful policies. Finally, we discussed the ICE protest that interrupted a church service in Minnesota and the historical parallels between those actions and Civil Rights campaigns that targeted white churches in the 1960s. In the wake of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we concluded by reflecting on the hope of his message and his faith that “right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant.”
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Robbie, you asked Why Minneapolis? Another reason is the large Somali American community there. You know how Trump has attacked the Somalis verbally, using the ugliest possible language. Despite the fact that most of the Somali population in the US (and my city, Columbus, Ohio, has the second largest Somali population in the US, after the Twin Cities) are US citizens, I believe Stephen Miller and the white nationalists want to engage in some ethnic cleansing. Trump has said they don't belong here and that he doesn't want them here. So that's another big reason why they picked the Twin Cities for their ICE occupation.
Thank you for your discussion of the civil rights activists trying to attend the Jackson churches. I only knew of the visits in Birmingham that same year in April, especially the one on Easter Sunday at the First Baptist Church, where the church staff actually welcomed the visitors and, after the service, the Rev. Earl Stallings shook the hand of one outside the church. (The goodwill didn’t last of course; segregationist members of the congregation made things difficult for him afterwards.)
Fantastic episode. Thank you so much for the shared journey and camaraderie. Right there with you on the "sighs," too. All day long and into the night.