quietly but sharply<\/a> rising in the San Diego region. Arrests by San Diego\u2019s ICE division recently reached a new monthly high. In July, more than 1,900 people were detained.<\/p>\n\u201cWe are here because something in our hearts led us here,\u201d said the Rev. Scott Santarosa, of Our Lady of Guadalupe parish. \u201cAs a religious person, a person of faith, or just as a human being, something in your heart tells you a certain truth: that each and every person deserves dignity and respect.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fidel, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico who gave his first name only, spoke to the crowd through a translator to describe the six weeks he spent detained at the Otay Mesa ICE detention center. He said he wasn\u2019t fed consistently, and the food he got was tasteless.<\/p>\n
It was horrible, he said, to be separated from his family. When he talked to his daughter on the phone, he kept his emotions together for her sake, but as soon as he got off the call, he went to his room and cried. He suspects she did the same.<\/p>\n
His next court hearing is next month. He said he will find out on her 21st birthday\u00a0whether he will be deported.<\/p>\n
Other speakers included leaders of First Unitarian Universalist Church, Congregation Dor Hadash, Islamic Center of San Diego, Congregation Beth Israel and St. Paul\u2019s Episcopal Cathedral. They call God by different names, but they all believe their faith required them to show up on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Mike Rothbaum, rabbi of Congregation Dor Hadash, said immigration is personal for him: His grandmother was a first-generation immigrant who settled in Brooklyn, N.Y., to escape Nazi Germany. His mother lives in a care facility that depends on Haitian workers, and the facility just lost dozens because the administration terminated temporary protected status for Haitians this summer.<\/p>\n
\u201cMay we never stop praying, never stop standing, never stop speaking and struggling with Fidel and everyone who is like him, because they are like us,\u201d Rothbaum said.<\/p>\n
Taha Hassane, imam of Islamic Center of San Diego, noted that the Quran says most Muslim prophets were migrants.<\/p>\n
\u201cMigration has often been part of the faith journey, born out of deep hardship, displacement and persecution,\u201d Hassane said. \u201cThey arrive not merely seeking shelter, but seeking dignity, safety, and a hand of brotherhood. At that point, it becomes the duty upon us as people of faith and goodwill and conscience to protect them, to welcome them and to advocate for their dignity and well being.\u201d<\/p>\n
Allisyn Thomas, interim dean at St. Paul\u2019s Episcopal, said: \u201cIf you don\u2019t love your neighbor, then you\u2019re not loving God.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Sunday, faith groups gathered petition signatures calling for policy reforms to help immigrants: greater access for religious leaders to provide pastoral care at the Otay Mesa detention center, regular and ongoing county health inspections of the center, legal representation for everyone facing deportation and the banning of immigration enforcement from houses of worship, schools, hospitals and clinics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thousands of San Diegans of several faiths marched by Balboa Park on Sunday to call for the dignity…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":477934,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[4549,7,23,100,74,84,76,75,1696],"class_list":["post-477933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-balboa-park","tag-california","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-county","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-top-stories-sdut"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=477933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/477934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=477933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=477933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=477933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}