Episcopal Bishop DeDe Duncan-Probe plans to take an uncommon stance on immigration enforcement on Ash Wednesday – a prayerful middle ground.
Duncan-Probe and other Episcopal and Catholic church leaders plan to pray and place ashes on foreheads at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday morning outside the headquarters for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, at 100 Northern Concourse in Mattydale.
At noon, they plan to offer “to-go” ashes outside the federal building, 100 S. Clinton St., in downtown Syracuse.
The diocese has invited people of all faiths to gather and pray at both events. She said she has also invited ICE agents.
“It will just be a prayer for dignity of all humans,” she said.
She asks people to carpool or park along the road and gather in a public space near the property. If people bring protest signs, she said, the prayer group will separate itself. It is not intended to be a protest, she said.
Many churches started offering “to-go” ashes during the pandemic. In the last few years, she said, she has taken the mission to the community. Last year, she visited the Syracuse University campus.
This year, she’s wading into immigration – one of the most divisive issues in recent American history.
President Donald Trump is carrying out a campaign promise to detain and deport criminals living in the country without permission. But aggressive enforcement is more often sweeping up people who are not criminals and are voluntarily participating in a legal path to citizenship.
Clashes between federal agents and protesters have also turned deadly. Federal agents shot and killed two protesters in Minneapolis.
Duncan-Probe said she plans to pray for safety without taking a political stance.
“It’s really about a human invitation to our life together, that we’re honoring the dignity of other human beings, and as people who have taken vows to do this, it’s part of our life of faith,” she said. “In terms of the politics and partisanship, I take no stance on that. That is not my role.”
Thousands of people have protested in Syracuse and surrounding communities in recent weeks. But most organizers have avoided the Mattydale office because it is difficult to access and hard for protesters to be seen.
It is a nondescript office building on a side street near the busy intersection of Route 11 and Interstate 81.
It is, however, the site of many arrests.
This is the building where immigrants on supervised release must periodically meet with ICE agents.
More and more often, immigrants who check in don’t come out. Instead, they are arrested and sent to detention centers around the country, leaving their cars, advocates and sometimes family members in the parking lot.
The Rev. Fred Daley, pastor of All Saints Roman Catholic Church in Syracuse, drove up to the Mattydale headquarters in January when ICE agents detained two members of his congregation. He said they declined to allow him inside, even when he said he was there to offer Communion.
Daley said he plans to pray outside the office building Wednesday at the invitation of Duncan-Probe.
Ash Wednesday marks the first day of Lent, a 40-day season of reflection that leads to Easter.
Daley has not stayed neutral on immigration policy. He said Ash Wednesday is the right time to stand outside of ICE headquarters and take a stand against cruelty.
“It’s such an appropriate day to gather there,” Daley said. “Lent is all about repentance, atoning for sins.”
ICE headquarters in Mattydale, N.Y. (Michelle Breidenbach | mbreidenbach@syracuse.com)Michelle Breidenbach | mbreidenbach@syracuse.com