Several dozen people bundled in colorful coats, hats and scarves crowded the street in front of the Department of Homeland Security field office in Nashville on Friday to pray.
Ice from a devastating winter storm still clung to the branches of nearby trees and snow flurries blew through the air as nearly 30 clergy members led the crowd in a vigil honoring nine people whose deaths have been connected to immigration law enforcement this year.
Included are Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good, both of whom were shot and killed by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis last month. At least six immigrants have died while in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody since Jan. 1, and a seventh person was fatally shot by an off-duty ICE agent in Los Angeles on New Year’s Eve.
“We are here because what is happening in Minneapolis is not isolated,” the Rev. Alisha Haddock, chair of Nashville Organized for Action and Hope’s Transformational Justice Taskforce, said. “What we are witnessing across this country is a dangerous rise of fear-driven policies. It is a rise of white supremacy and nationalism cloaked in distorted Christianity and hollow and faux patriotism. And we are here today to say very, very clearly that this is not who we are and this is not what our faith teaches.”
Friday’s vigil also follows a week of hardship for Nashvillians, more than 71,000 of whom were still without electricity when the vigil began at noon.