We, the undersigned religious leaders, currently or formerly from Staten Island, express our profound dismay at the reckless and violent behavior of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in recent months.<\/p>\n
Examples include the seizing and handcuffing of a 5-year-old boy, separated from his parents and sent by himself to a detention center in Texas, the dragging of a 56-year-old gentleman, a U.S. citizen from his home, into sub-freezing temperatures, dressed only in his underwear and a blanket, and the killings of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, and Keith Porter, Jr., killed by an off-duty ICE agent in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
Since the beginning of 2025, 40 people in this country have been killed by ICE officials.<\/p>\n
We have been told that the people targeted by ICE for arrest are violent criminals, the \u201cworst of the worst.\u201d However, most detainees, according to a Syracuse University study, have no criminal record whatsoever. <\/p>\n
Some of our cities this past year have become armed camps. The occupying army in question is from our own government, terrorizing law-abiding residents, and undermining public safety rather than protecting it. <\/p>\n
Pope Leo XIV said he is troubled by the violent and at times \u201cextremely disrespectful\u201d ways migrants have been treated in the United States. Other religious leaders have echoed his sentiments. Leviticus 19 admonishes us regarding immigrants \u2026\u201dLove them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt.\u201d <\/p>\n
We must remember that, aside from Native Americans, we are a nation of immigrants, and descendants of immigrants, mindful that many African-Americans came here in chains and against their will. <\/p>\n
We call upon our elected leaders to stop armed officials from terrorizing immigrants and American citizens. We ask that more taxpayer dollars not be approved until this unconscionable conduct stops.<\/p>\n
We make this statement on behalf of moral values upheld by various religious traditions, and on behalf of simple human decency.<\/p>\n
This letter is signed by the religious leaders and community members listed below:<\/p>\n
Rev. Ben Bortin<\/p>\n
Fr. Liam O\u2019Doherty, OSA<\/p>\n
Fr. Trevor Babb<\/p>\n
Rev. Richard Michael<\/p>\n
Rev. Katie Cumiskey<\/p>\n
Ms. Marie Noel<\/p>\n
Rev. George McClain<\/p>\n
Pastor Janet Jones<\/p>\n
Rev. Leslianne Braunstein <\/p>\n
Ms. Regina Cassidy <\/p>\n
Rev. Antoinnette R. Donegan<\/p>\n
Ms. Anne Hughes-Hinnen<\/p>\n
Rev. Karen Pershing<\/p>\n
Rev. Jennifer Hanus Richards <\/p>\n
Rev. Terry Troia<\/p>\n
Rabbi Judah Newberger<\/p>\n
Fr. John O\u2019Hara<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We, the undersigned religious leaders, currently or formerly from Staten Island, express our profound dismay at the reckless…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":115299,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":{"0":"post-115298","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-staten-island","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-nyc","11":"tag-staten-island","12":"tag-staten-island-headlines","13":"tag-staten-island-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115298\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/115299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}