PRESS ADVISORY
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Wednesday, July 10, 2019
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
Lizette Olmos, CASA, [email protected], 240-706-2624
Inaru Melendez, CPD, [email protected], 413-331-9530
DMV Faith and Civic Organizations Hold Rally And Vigil in coordination with Lights for Liberty Nationwide Vigil
Washington, DC – On Friday, July 12 at 7 p.m. in Lafayette Park, DC-area national and local organizations including CASA, Center for Popular Democracy, Faith in Action, and the Capital Area District 32BJ SEIU will come together to demand that human detention camps in the United States are closed down. Lights for Liberty: A Vigil to End Human Concentration Camps is a worldwide event bringing together thousands of individual and groups to protest the rapidly escalating inhumane conditions faced by migrants as they fight for freedom and protection.
“This is an important moment for us to pause and reflect on why we remain committed to the work that we do,” said Rev. Dr. Sharon Stanley-Rea, pastor engaged with Faith in Action in Washington, D.C. “Our faith has carried us through the multiple policy changes of this administration and the effects each has wrought upon our communities. No one seeking protection should have to die or risk starvation, illness and torture in their plight for a better life. We won’t stop standing up for those who can’t, and we will keep showing up to seek justice until better measures are created for all of our migrant brothers and sisters.”
Leaders will gather in Lafayette Park, directly across from the White House, to speak out against these practices, followed by a prayer vigil. Wax candles are not allowed in the park so participants should bring battery powered candles, flashlights or download the mobile app.
At the DC vigil, speakers will include Randi Weingarten (President of American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO, which filed a human rights complaint with the United Nations against the Trump Administration), Hope Frye (immigration and human rights attorney and activist, former chair for the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law, and founder of Project Lifeline), Congresswoman Norma Torres (the only Central American immigrant in Congress), Gustavo Torres (Executive Director, CASA), and Ruby Corado (trans activist, and founder of Casa Ruby, DC’s only bilingual, multicultural LGBTQ youth support organization).
Across the country and around the world, participants will light candles around the country in a silent vigil for all those held in US detention camps, to bring light to the darkness of the Trump administration’s horrific policies.
“This country cannot continue claiming to be a beacon of liberty and freedom when we are warehousing migrant children and families in squalor,” said Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, President & CEO of Lutheran Immigration & Refugee Service. “Just as public outrage precipitated an end to the family separation policy, we must stand together to demand an end to detention and mass deportations – practices that are inhumane and wholly un-American.”
What: Rally and Vigil against immigrant children’s detention and family separations
Who: National and local labor, activists, and faith based leaders
When: Friday, July 12th, 2019 7 p.m. EST
Where: White House, Lafayette Park (DC)
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About Lights for Liberty: Lights for Liberty was created by a loose coalition of grassroots activists, with support from long-standing immigrants’ rights organizations and other organizers. More information can be found at http://www.lightsforliberty.org.
