SerpApi.Org
Sacramento religious leaders can no longer hold pro-immigrant monthly prayer vigils outside the John Moss Federal Building downtown.
A security guard at the building delivered the news last week to Sacramento Area Congregations Together, a coalition of faith-based community organizations. The group began organizing the vigils in October following reports of detainment by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. ICE’s Sacramento Enforcement and Removal Operation Office is located at the federal building along with offices for several other federal agencies.
Last year, reports surfaced that ICE was keeping people overnight for consecutive days with limited water, little access to restrooms and no air conditioning. The building has also been the location of many ICE arrests in Sacramento under President Donald Trump’s second term.
“We wanted to sort of be a moral witness to the situation and also let people know that we were praying with and for them, and being in solidarity with them,” said Sacramento ACT’s Executive Director Tere Flores Onofre.
The vigils - held at the corner of 7th Street and Capitol Mall - typically involved music, singing and prayers from members of different faiths, including Jewish, Christian, Muslim and Buddhist. Sacramento ACT is comprised of more than 56 congregations, schools and neighborhood groups.
“We all pretty much agree on how we should treat immigrants and how we should welcome them,” Flores Onofre said.
Flores Onofre said interactions with the federal building security had been minimal until last week when a security guard told organizers that the vigils could no longer take place outside the building as the area is “federal property.”
In a written statement Tuesday, a U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said the security officer acted in accordance with the General Services Administration which is the federal agency that owns and is responsible for managing the property. ICE had no role in the decision, the spokesperson added.
GSA did not respond to a request for comment including what prompted the change.
Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Sacramento, who visited the building multiple times last year, said she has reached out to federal agencies to restore Sacramento ACT’s ability to hold the prayer vigils.
“The First Amendment protects their right to gather and pray, and after nine months of vigils without incident, that right shouldn’t be revoked abruptly with no notice,” Matsui said in a written statement.
Sacramento Councilmember Phil Pluckebaum, who represents the downtown core, said the city would work with the group to allow for vigils in the grassy median along Capitol Mall if the federal government was slow to respond or not “great partners.”
“The city is committed to defending everyone’s right to free speech and public assembly,” he said in a statement.
Flores Onofre said the group since has discussed different options for gatherings, but believe that the vigils outside the building are within their constitutional rights to freedom of speech, religion and assembly. Sacramento ACT is awaiting a response after requesting a permit from the GSA to use the space for its mid-August vigil.
“We have always done it in a peaceful and nonviolent way,” she said. “So we believe that, if we give up this right, that is what the administration is banking on - that we will just concede our rights, and not continue to stand up for what we believe in. Which is immigrants should be welcome, that there should be due process and people’s human rights should be respected.”
