Protect our Immigrant Community
By Irvin Heishman, co-pastor of the West Charleston Church of the Brethren in Tipp City, Ohio
Shared at the Butler County Jail Rally on June 8, 2025
During Holy Week, just before the celebration of Easter, one of our church members, Armando Reyes Rodriguez, was detained here in this jail. This week, just before the holy celebration of Pentecost, the brother of another of our church members was also detained in this jail.
Why were they detained? We’ve learned that there are quotas for detentions – a certain number of people need to be seized and detained each week, even during holy weeks. Those who obey the law are the easiest targets for meeting detention quotas. I want to make sure you heard me correctly. The two men I spoke of are not here for disobeying the law. They are being detained for obeying the law. They have been in compliance with all ICE requests. They showed up as requested to the ICE office and that was the day they were then detained. There are no criminal charges against them. They are being detained for showing up as required. They showed up. They were obeying the law.
There are ugly and false narratives about immigrants like them. Those false narratives get a lot of air time. So we need to proclaim the truth. Those of us who know the people inside this jail by name, those of us who have shared the bread and cup of communion with them in our churches, those of us who have heard their stories and prayed with them and are friends with them, know (we know) that they are good people. They are good fathers working hard to care for their children. We know that they are faithful and generous, loving members of our churches. We know that they are contributing to our communities, enriching our life together. We know the truth about them. They are good people.
It deeply troubles me that these detentions leave traumatized families behind. These men, who were obeying the law, have young children at home, crying at night for their fathers. The moral value of keeping good families together used to be important in this country. That’s why ICE originally gave my church member permission to be in this country, to keep him and his family together. Now that permission is being rescinded with the consequence that this good family has been separated from one another. As Father’s Day approaches this coming Sunday, these good fathers will be unjustly separated from their wives and children.
We know that good people are being punished in this jail for obeying the law. We know that because we know the detainees. They are our friends. They are our siblings in Christ. So we know that great injustice is happening here. We have friends and neighbors who are being detained here for doing the right thing. That’s not how things are supposed to work in our country. As a Christian pastor, I want to say that this is not how things are supposed to work from a faith perspective either.
It is interesting and significant for our gathering this evening that today is a day of important, sacred observance in the Christian tradition. Today is Pentecost and the message of this day relates to the witness we are giving this evening.
On this day, some 2000 years ago, there was a great outpouring of God’s Holy Spirit. The result was dramatic. Ethnic and linguistic divisions were overcome, barriers were torn down, and a new movement of multi-ethnic, multi-lingual, multicultural reconciliation was born. It was a movement that brought people from all the nations together as one loving family.
Sadly, we are gathered here today because we are facing strong opposition to that good God-driven vision for our life together. There are strong forces at work opposing that great work of God that began on the Day of Pentecost.
Instead of bringing diverse people together in a joyful new beloved community of peace, we are building up the very kinds of walls that God is working to tear down. This spreads fear and rejection of our neighbors instead of calling us to love God and neighbor.
The good news that I can bring this evening on this Day of Pentecost, is that our witness on behalf of our friends detained here, our voice on behalf of all the good law abiding immigrants in our communities, and our proclamation of a better vision for our country, has behind it the power and determination of God’ Holy Spirit. It was to bring good news to the poor, the captive, the oppressed that Jesus came, and it was to give us the power to carry on that same message and work that the Holy Spirit was poured out upon us. For this reason I’m convinced that our collective witness this evening, as people from a variety of faith and philosophical traditions calling for an end to the harm being done here and proclaiming a better vision for our country, is I believe, being done in the power of God, power that was unleashed upon us on this very day of Pentecost, for this very purpose.
So, I implore all who might hear this message, in the name of God and all that is holy to do what you know in your heart is the right thing to do; follow our constitution and give due process to everyone; stop detaining good people who are obeying the law; stop detaining good people who seek a better life for their themselves and their children; stop detaining good people who are seeking the safety of asylum. Stop and notice the worth and dignity of each person. Let’s just stop and allow ourselves to become a better people.