Every Thursday at 9:00 a.m. a small number of people gather in front of the US Customs and Immigration Enforcement (ICE) field office at 310 E. Knapp Street to engage in a 20-minute Jericho Walk. Carrying a variety of signs in visible support of immigrants and immigrant rights, the group walks seven times around the front of the ICE doorway in silent protest of ICE, its policies, its brutal tactics and the growing number of deportations it enforces.
As people drive by the ICE office, many honk their horns in support of the walkers and the signs they carry. As other people—immigrants—enter the ICE building for their appointments, they carry not signs but armloads of paperwork; they are silent and somber. And when they leave, they often are in tears but they always offer a thank you to the walkers.
One can wonder about the value of engaging in a short walk in front of an indifferent government office building. But to those who participate, it is a profoundly meditative experience, an opportunity to reflect on our current government and our responsibility to those who are being targeted, harassed and deported. The walk concludes with a brief, interfaith prayer—a prayer encouraging all to become sacred disrupters.
If you are so inclined, please join the Jericho Walkers every Thursday morning. All are welcome.
Deborah Conta