Bonnie and David Freeman wore big buttons of FAITH.<\/p>\n
The Bay Ho residents, both 81, joined as many as 70 volunteers Monday at the launch of a new ministry in the 1.4-million Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego<\/a>.<\/p>\n Their buttons \u2014 proclaiming \u201cFaithful Accompaniment In Trust & Hope\u201d \u2014 is a program to make sure refugees and asylum seekers are not alone at immigration hearings.<\/p>\n Spurred by June\u2019s World Refugee Day event \u2014 where Bishop Michael Pham and other clergy saw masked ICE agents \u201cscatter\u201d<\/a> at their immigration court presence \u2014 ministry organizers unveiled a calendar for sign-ups and held an orientation.<\/p>\n Outside the chapel of the diocese\u2019s pastoral center, the Freemans \u2014 former English-as-a-second-language college professors in Texas and Central California \u2014 called the effort \u201cextremely important.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAll our lives,\u201d Bonnie said, \u201cwe\u2019ve been working with immigrants and we know them as people and we care about them and we know they care about this country and they care about the work they do and they\u2019re proud, wonderful people.\u201d<\/p>\n She added: \u201cOnce you get to know these folks, you hate to see the way they\u2019re now being treated \u2014 it\u2019s just criminal to us.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The Freemans have taken part in their parish \u2014 Our Lady of Guadalupe \u2014 feeding immigrants.<\/p>\n Now volunteers include a wide variety of faiths \u2014 Episcopal, Lutheran, Church of Christ, Unitarian-Universalist, Church of the Nazarene, Jewish and Muslim, said the Rev. Scott Santarosa, also of Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish.<\/p>\n Auxiliary Bishop Ramon Bejarano said a prayer and sprinkled holy water on volunteers after newly installed Bishop Pham<\/a> shared hopes for the new ministry, the region\u2019s 13th.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThis is history in the making \u2026 something beautiful and mighty,\u201d Gloria Morales-Palos told the chapel audience. She\u2019s co-chair of the San Diego Organizing Project board,<\/a> the activist group whose executive director \u2014 Dinora Reyna<\/a> \u2014 first suggested clergy show up at immigration court on World Refugee Day.<\/p>\n Reyna, born in the United States to Salvadoran immigrants, spoke Monday as well, noting the contrast of how the federal government depicts immigrants against her experience of asylum-seekers wearing their Sunday best at immigration court.<\/p>\n Pham, the first Vietnamese-American named to lead a diocese in the United States, stood among volunteers and news media and said the idea of the ministry was hailed by the vast majority who contacted him.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want to make a difference because each of us have value and dignity,\u201d he said. \u201cIn communion, with each other we are stronger.\u201d<\/p>\n He ended his greeting to volunteers on \u201cthe mission that God has entrusted to us\u201d with \u201cIs that good? Is that helpful?\u201d<\/p>\n Asked his message to Catholics who in November backed Donald Trump, and the GOP candidate\u2019s vow of mass deportations, Pham said he didn\u2019t know their mindset but that now, seeing the human persons involved, \u201cthey might make change.\u201d<\/p>\n He said he received only \u201ca couple\u201d of notes opposing the practice of accommanying migrants to court, \u201cbut 90%\u201d were supportive of their \u201cwalk with the people.\u201d<\/p>\n And what if ICE agents don\u2019t pull back again \u2014 and continue making arrests?<\/p>\n \u201cObviously, living here, we gotta follow the law,\u201d Pham told Times of San Diego. \u201cWe do as much as we can. The next time, we ask the U.S. Bishops Conference to be more vocal in pressing this issue. \u2026 Maybe in the mass presence [of clergy] throughout the country, that can be helpful.\u201d<\/p>\n Pham said the widely covered June 20 event at the San Diego federal bulding moved clergy in nearby Orange County to accompany immigrants at court.<\/p>\n \u201cThey, too, walked with the people,\u201d he told reporters. \u201cThey wanted to see what we had done and how beneficial that was. So other dioceses are beginning to participate.\u201d<\/p>\n ICE and DHS didn\u2019t respond to my requests for comment.<\/p>\n Santarosa said Pope Leo didn\u2019t have to sign off on the ministry but expected the new American pontiff to hear about it.<\/p>\n \u201cI think he does have eyes and ears that relate this kind of information to him,\u201d Santarosa said. \u201cSo I\u2019m very certain that he\u2019s also going to be aware of this as well.\u201d<\/p>\n Leading a downstairs orientation was Yolanda Crystal Felix,<\/a> managing attorney at the American Bar Association Immigration Justice Project<\/a>.<\/p>\n Felix narrated a PowerPoint and answered questions basic and sophisticated \u2014 from \u201cWill we be standing all the time?\u201d (Not if you\u2019re in court) to whether anyone has legally challenged the fact that immigration judges and prosecuting lawyers work under the same Justice Department.<\/p>\n One volunteer asked if an underground railroad existed for immigrants being deported to be sent to their home country instead of some unfamiliar third nation. (Felix wasn\u2019t aware of any such effort).<\/p>\n Much of orientation was describing the makeup of the immigration system and which agencies did what. Felix noted such things as a new $100 fee to apply for asylum (filling out Form I-589<\/a> \u2014 something immigrants must do within a year of entering the United States).<\/p>\n No families have been arrested in San Diego, Felix said, but fathers have been taken from their spouses and children.<\/p>\n But Felix conceded that the Department of Homeland Security has been dodging traditional legal norms and seeking dismissal of cases for the sake of \u201cexpedited removal\u201d<\/a> \u2014 and no day in court.<\/p>\n \u201cCongress allowed the expedited removal process to exist,\u201d she told a rapt audience. \u201cIt\u2019s a system created that is \u2026 not due process.\u201d<\/p>\n Morales-Palos is in charge of the calendar for clergy and laity, scheduling people from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. (via three shifts a day) Monday through Friday at the Edward J. Schwartz Federal Building<\/a>\u00a0 on Front Street.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is God\u2019s will,\u201d she said of the ministry. \u201cThis is possible because God allows it to be possible.\u00a0At least people will not be alone. They will feel supported.\u201d<\/p>\n Immigrants can find companions the day of their hearing or be paired with someone via an online form<\/a> or hotline.<\/p>\n \u201cFor me, it\u2019s a dream come true,\u201d Morales-Palos said. \u201cI know what it feels like to be in the shadows. \u2026 I know how desperate people are.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n