Buen Pastor Congregation Holds Vigil for Immigrant Rights

On Friday, February 18, 2011, members of Raleigh’s Buen Pastor congregation held a vigil calling for human rights for all immigrants. The vigil was attended by allies from the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC), the North Carolina DREAM Team, and other Raleigh congregations. During the vigil, the group called for justice for the church members who are currently fighting deportation. Some forty-five parishioners – including eighteen young children — were stopped by Border Patrol last spring, as the group travelled home to North Carolina from a religious event in Texas. During the course of their arrest, they were subjected to terrible abuses by Border Patrol, who taunted them for their religious practice, denied them the right to call a lawyer, and warned them that if they refused to sign certain papers, the government would take away their children. SCSJ is representing the group in removal proceedings, seeking suppression of evidence and termination of proceedings based on the constitutional, statutory, and regulatory violations that Border Patrol committed.