Each Monday we send out a blog post, The Called Activist, intersecting the themes of faith and justice. If you would like to be added to The Called Activist, please just email me and let me know!

Last Wednesday I was looking forward to catching up on some work. I didn’t have a lot of meetings scheduled and it was a rare, moderately slow day in terms of events scheduled. So, I thought, I would get some emails done and even get to have some good conversations with folks who I know usually come in on Wednesdays.

I first suspected my slow Wednesday was not to be when I got a call from someone who works near us who said there was something strange happening in our parking lot. A group of people were gathering. Somehow, I knew immediately it was ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement). Because of this administration’s obsession with criminalizing immigrants and wreaking havoc in immigrant communities, there have been numerous sightings – some real and some mistaken – in our surrounding neighborhoods since they took office. Each time we follow our established protocol to secure the building. We have been trained and we follow a protocol that is designed to protect the many nonprofits and the people they faithfully serve.

I immediately went out back to confirm my suspicions and there I saw HSI (Homeland Security Investigations) and other ICE-related agents who have been conscripted to serve the nefarious ends of ICE gathering in our parking lot. I was immediately infuriated that our property was being used by ICE to either stage a raid or to debrief some ill-intentioned enforcement action. We have lots of groups here that use our space to serve people; to plan, strategize, dream, worship, pray, and debrief, all in the pursuit of peace and justice. Until Wednesday, no one I have known about has used our space for such abhorrent purposes. I am still angry that they used our space for such purposes. It is a betrayal of who we are and what we do and this betrayal was orchestrated by our own incompetent and cruel federal government.

Later that afternoon me and a pastor went and prayed in the space in the parking lot in which they gathered to cleanse it from their actions.

I asked the agents to leave the parking lot because it was private and they did. I then went inside and initiated our protocol to keep our building and the people in it safe. I soon came to learn that HSI and other ICE-related agents attempted to abduct a school nurse as she got out of her car to go to work at Cooke Elementary, which is right behind us. Thankfully, the principal and other staff, who had been trained to respond, came outside, asked the agents if they had a warrant (they didn’t), and the nurse was able to safely go inside the school. After drop-off was completed the agents came into our parking lot, illegally parked their cars, and proceeded to debrief their abduction attempt. That was when I encountered them.

I then spent my morning staffing our front doors so that we could keep them locked, and sending out numerous emails and messages to let our folks and the wider immigrant rights community know that ICE was in the area and to be careful. We fielded calls and texts and chats from concerned folks for pretty much all day. I know that we are dealing with peoples’ lives, so it felt heavy and painful knowing immigrant lives are but objects to this administration.

Now, let me tell you, I am still so amazed by how the immigrant rights community in DC really stepped up and lent their wisdom and active participation to us! They helped get the word out, affirmed our protocol that we put into place, and then suggested that we be present at Cooke Elementary for pick up at 3 in case ICE came back. So, we put out the invitation to anyone who might want to join us and 30-40 people showed up to protect families and students as they left school! It was an amazing presence! ICE did not show up but the principal came out and shared his appreciation with some of those present.

I felt strongly that ICE’s invasion into our neighborhood was an unwelcome one; an assailing, outside force bent on creating fear and havoc, terror and trauma. I believe we needed to make a public witness that proclaimed to the city, to our neighborhood, and to the heavens that the people of our neighborhood are best equipped to keep us safe. Our peace is not disrupted by school nurses or undocumented residents or visitors. No! Our peace is disrupted by the incompetent and cruel federal government that is committed to state-sponsored terror.

So, we once again put out the word that at the end of the day we would lead a prayer walk around the block. I was pretty sure only a few people would show (or maybe even just me!), but we ended up with about 25 people! We had the song leader from All Souls Church Unitarian and a couple of pastors with us, so it was a spur-of-the-moment beautiful experience where we were reminded that we do not need armed invaders coming into our communities terrorizing and traumatizing us – WE KEEP US SAFE!!! We are kept safe as we know one another, as we care for one another, and as we love one another.

One thing I did not expect was that we had media with us as well, so we ended up on the news! The local news did a beautiful story and we also ended up in the Washington Post (although I have yet to read the article because I refuse to pay Jeff Bezos one nickel).

It was a hard day, but one thing I want to emphasize here is that both Festival Center staff and Cooke Elementary school staff were trained in how to respond. I cannot stress the importance of this enough. We ALL need to be trained in Know Your Rights trainings and Bystander trainings. If you do not know how to access these kinds of trainings, please let me know and I will do my best to put you in touch with folks who do them. It was also a beautiful day as the community of tenants and co-workers in our building and the wider community we are part of all stepped up and helped us not only dream of a world we want to live into, but they helped manifest this on Wednesday, a hard and beautiful day where it was confirmed for us once again that, in the end, WE KEEP US SAFE!!!