An interfaith gathering begins their weekly vigil at the Federal Building in downtown Los Angeles for those detained by federal immigration agents at the Metropolitan Detention Center on Tuesday, July 29, 2025. The group, led by \u201cGodmothers of the disappeared,\u201d has adopted pink and leaves flowers at the detention center. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Los Angeles Daily News\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/LDN-L-ICE-VIGIL-0730-04-SR.jpg\")
\nAn interfaith gathering begins their weekly vigil at the Federal Building in downtown Los Angeles for those detained by federal immigration agents at the Metropolitan Detention Center on Tuesday, July 29, 2025. The group, led by \u201cGodmothers of the disappeared,\u201d has adopted pink and leaves flowers at the detention center. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Los Angeles Daily News\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/LDN-L-ICE-VIGIL-0730-06-SR.jpg\")
\nAn interfaith gathering begins their weekly vigil at the Federal Building in downtown Los Angeles for those detained by federal immigration agents at the Metropolitan Detention Center on Tuesday, July 29, 2025. The group, led by \u201cGodmothers of the disappeared,\u201d has adopted pink and leaves flowers at the detention center. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Los Angeles Daily News\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/LDN-L-ICE-VIGIL-0730-01-SR.jpg\")
\nAn interfaith gathering listens to stories outside the Metropolitan Detention Center of those being detained by federal immigration agents during their weekly vigil in downtown Los Angeles on Tuesday, July 29, 2025. The group, led by \u201cGodmothers of the disappeared,\u201d has adopted pink and leaves flowers at the detention center. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Los Angeles Daily News\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
![\"Zoe](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/LDN-L-ICE-VIGIL-0730-03-SR.jpg\")
\nZoe Kisselbach, of Hollywood, leads an interfaith gathering during their weekly vigil for those detained by federal immigration agents at the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles on Tuesday, July 29, 2025. The group, led by \u201cGodmothers of the disappeared,\u201d has adopted pink and leaves flowers at the detention center. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Los Angeles Daily News\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/LDN-L-ICE-VIGIL-0730-08-SR.jpg\")
\nAn interfaith gathering holds a vigil for those detained by federal immigration agents at the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles on Tuesday, July 29, 2025 where National Guard troops move shields. The group, led by \u201cGodmothers of the disappeared,\u201d has adopted pink and leaves flowers at the detention center. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Los Angeles Daily News\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
![\"Dawn](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/LDN-L-ICE-VIGIL-0730-09-SR.jpg\")
\nDawn Jacobs, of Westchester, and Pastor Amparo Rincon, of Norwalk, leave flowers at the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles for those being detained by federal immigration agents during their interfaith weekly vigil on Tuesday, July 29, 2025. The group, led by \u201cGodmothers of the disappeared,\u201d has adopted the color pink. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Los Angeles Daily News\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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An interfaith gathering begins their weekly vigil at the Federal Building in downtown Los Angeles for those detained by federal immigration agents at the Metropolitan Detention Center on Tuesday, July 29, 2025. The group, led by \u201cGodmothers of the disappeared,\u201d has adopted pink and leaves flowers at the detention center. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Los Angeles Daily News\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n
Expand<\/a><\/p>\n The vigils began<\/a> after federal immigration agents started arresting people outside of immigration courts in May, a change in policy that many advocates say has terrified immigrant communities<\/a>. Los Angeles religious leaders with the Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice, or CLUE, began organizing in response.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was a feeling that people needed to do something. People were starting to be taken,\u201d Goldberg said.<\/p>\n Raids in various parts of Southern California continue as part of President Trump\u2019s immigration crackdown. An estimated 2,800 people were detained by federal immigration agents<\/a> in the LA area between early June and late July, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Trump campaigned on the promise of targeting violent criminals to secure American streets, though the government\u2019s own data shows that over 70% of people detained by ICE at the end of June have no criminal record<\/a>.<\/p>\n Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials did not respond to requests for comment for this story, but the departments have previously defended immigration enforcement operations and the handling of detained individuals.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery day the brave men and women of ICE go out into local communities across the country and put their lives on the line to bolster public safety and national security by apprehending transnational gang members, foreign fugitives and other dangerous criminal aliens who are in the country illegally and preying on law-abiding citizens,\u201d said an Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesperson in a statement from early July.<\/p>\n Goldberg along with other CLUE members formed The Godmothers of the Disappeared, inspired by the Argentinian human rights group called Madres de Plaza de Mayo, created by a group of mothers in 1977 demanding answers about their children believed to have been disappeared by the country\u2019s military dictatorship.<\/p>\n \u201cThe reason why we use that word \u2018disappeared\u2019 is because so often when someone is picked up now [by federal immigration agents] \u2026 it\u2019s very hard to find them,\u201d said Reverend Dr. Alexia Salvatierra, academic dean of the Centro Latino at Fuller Theological Seminary and an associate professor of Mission and Global Transformation, and a member of the Godmothers of the Disappeared.<\/p>\n Salvatierra said she has worked on immigration issues for 45 years under both Democratic and Republican administrations. \u201cI\u2019ve never seen anything like what is going on now,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n She also said the vigil is important on both spiritual and strategic levels. \u201cWhen we come together to pray fervently, I believe that there\u2019s a way in which God responds to that. \u2026 We are very passionate about all the people who are being detained unjustly, whose human rights are being violated, and whose families are being separated.<\/p>\n Salvatierra believes the vigils help educate the public, especially evangelical communities, about the realities of immigration enforcement. \u201cThere are people who are married to American citizens, who have American citizen children, who\u2019ve never committed a crime in this country, who\u2019ve been working for 30 years, and those people are being picked up and deported,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd I think that your average person in a church doesn\u2019t know that, and that the only way they\u2019re going to know that is if they see church people.\u201d<\/p>\n As the group of singing vigil attendees made their way east down Aliso Street towards Alameda Street, several Department of Homeland Security agents stood guard outside the Metropolitan Detention Center.<\/p>\n The group clutching flowers dressed in pink ribbons formed a circle next to MDC\u2019s driveway before they sang Down By The Riverside and prepared to lay down their small bouquets dedicated to those who have been taken by federal immigration agents. \u201cAs we sing, we know the folks who are held in detention can hear us. We\u2019ll also be sending up our prayers and song towards God,\u201d said Rabbi Goldberg.<\/p>\n DHS agents and National Guardsmen watched as the group continued singing and as the pile of purple, white, red and yellow flowers grew on the concrete federal grounds.<\/p>\n \u201cWe ain\u2019t gonna study war no more,\u201d the group sang as two DHS SUVs drove into the MDC\u2019s subterranean basement.<\/p>\n