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Shining Light Against Oppression and Separation

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On July 12, Richmonders joined with protesters across the country, showing their opposition to detention camps and family separations at the US-Mexico border with the nationwide Lights For Liberty vigil.

Hundreds of supporters came out to the Lights for Liberty vigil in front of the state Capitol building in downtown Richmond on Friday, July 12th. The vigil brought people together across the US to protest the federal government’s immigration policies and treatment of migrants at the US-Mexico border. The Richmond vigil was one of over 700 planned that night for different locations across the country.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers were rumored to be attending, preventing anyone not wanting to risk arrest from joining in. ACLU legal observers present at the event could not confirm if ICE officers did actually attend. 

The vigil included Richmond activists as speakers, and ended with a Facebook LiveStream account of staying in a detention center on the border by Abbie Arevalo Herrera, a woman who has been fighting her deportation for the past year by living within the First Unitarian Church of Richmond.

Here are some scenes from the evening’s events:

Photos by Hadley Chittum

Protests Against Trump’s “Zero Tolerance” Immigration Policy Being Planned All Over Virginia

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As outrage continues to mount over President Trump’s “zero tolerance” immigration policies, protests are planned for all over Virginia. For those who have been living under a proverbial rock and have not been following the news, Trump’s newly implemented policy removes children from their parents when they are caught crossing the border illegally. Since the policy has been implemented, it has been reported by the executive that 2,342 children have been separated from their parents at the border between May 5 and June 9 – amounting to about 65 children a day.

Once taken from their parents, these children are put in detention centers in places like McAllen, Texas, where they have been photographed sleeping on the floor with mylar blankets and imprisoned in chain-link cages. Children as young as four-months-old have been reportedly separated from their parents and ProPublica has recently released audio from inside a detention center where one ICE agent can be heard saying “we have an orchestra here” in reference to all the screaming children. Sexual assaults against mothers of separated children have also now been reported by guards and staff at one of the detention centers in Texas in a recent complaint filed against Department of Homeland Security.

NBC reported on this yesterday saying, “Women at the 500-plus bed center, which opened in August, told attorneys that staff have been removing mothers from their cells at night to engage in sexual acts, promising immigration help in exchange for sexual favors, and groping women in front of children, according to the complaint.”

Due to the inhumanity of this policy and the way in which it is being implemented, there will be a series of protests taking place in the next week all throughout the Commonwealth. Dates, times, and locations can be found below:

Virginia Beach:

June 21 at Congressman Scott Taylor’s office in Virginia Beach Town Center, sponsored by Indivisible 757.

Richmond:

June 22 at Congressman Dave Brat’s Office, meeting at the CVS on 10901 W Broad St, Glen Allen, sponsored by Together We Will – Henrico.

Washington DC: 

June 30, in front of the White House, sponsored by the Women’s March, along with seven other activist organizations and networks.

Norfolk:

June 30, Disrupt Baby Snatching at the US Customs and Border Patrol Offices in Norfolk at 101 E. Main Street, hosted by Disrupt the Elite.

Farmville:

July 1, Weekend of Action at the ICE Detention Center, meeting up at the Farmville Train Station, 510 West Third Street, sponsored by a coalition of grassroots organizers.