KINGSTON, N.Y. >> Support for the Ulster Immigrant Defense Network is broad, interfaith and county wide, said the Rev. Frank Alagna of Holy Cross Santa Cruz Episcopal Church on Pine Grove Avenue, one of the group’s founding members.
Alagna said the network includes other congregations in Kingston, as well as in Saugerties, Ellenville, the town of Ulster, Woodstock and New Paltz, “and it’s an expanding thing.”
The network describes itself on its website as “a coalition formed by local faith communities and concerned residents to provide a network of safety and support for our immigrant friends and neighbors, who are valued members of our communities.”
In discussing her congregation’s involvement, Rabbi Yael Romer of Congregation Emanuel of the Hudson Valley in Kingston, said, “We are all connected to this because when anyone is in danger, when anyone is vulnerable, when anyone is targeted, our commitment together as friends and as leaders is that we’re all targeted. And we believe that from our faith practices and we believe that in our action.”
She continued, “The minute anybody in this community is targeted, we are all targeted, and we are all responsible to act and that’s what this is about.”
Alagna said heightened immigration enforcement instituted by the administration of President Donald Trump has made the network a necessity. “With the emergence of the new administration, it became clear that so many in our community were placed at greater risk,” he said, “and it is a response that comes from the faith that we hold to create an experience of greater safety.”
Among Alagna’s responsibilities in the network is outreach to interested congregations, he said. When requested, he meets with congregational leadership to answer their questions.
Of the congregations involved, Alagna said, only some are equipped to actually provide physical sanctuary to immigrants if and when the need arises. That, he added, “is a special decision made by a number of congregations who shall remain nameless.”
“We don’t want to create a target for ICE,” he said, referring to the federal Immigration and Naturalization Service police who conduct raids and arrest illegal immigrants. “Should we need to be public, we will be public,” he said, adding that anonymity is “common sense right now given the [political] climate.”
In joining the network, member congregations endorse a statement of conscience, which is posted on the organization’s website, declaring, “We will not be silent. Ulster County houses of worship stand as one. We are all immigrants.”
Gathering in Alagna’s church office recently, Imam Syed Khan of the Muslim Association of Ulster County in Kingston, Alagna and Romer discussed their mutual commitment to the network.
“We are in this together,” Romer said, when asked if members of her congregation are undocumented immigrants who may be personally affected by some of the policies they believe are threatening others in the community.
Added Khan, “It doesn’t really matter whether you’re directly affected or not. A wrong is a wrong. … We are obliged to come here and support this cause.”
“I am not aware of anyone in the Muslim community, but that does not matter at all. We are part of this community,” he said. “We are members of the Kingston community.”
Recently, Alagna said, the Trump administration announced a plan to authorize the deportation of some 60,000 Haitians who came to the United States after the 2010 earthquake that devastated that country’s infrastructure.
“That decision is unconscionable,” Alagna said. “There is an ugliness and evil that is palpable.”
Alagna, whose church offers services in both English and Spanish, estimated that as many as a quarter of Kingston’s population is Latino and noted that many farmworkers from South American and Central American countries also live and work in Ulster County. Many members of those communities feel threatened by the level of immigration enforcement under the Trump administration, he said.
Alagna declined to discuss whether there are any families or individuals currently in sanctuary in Ulster County, but did say, “We’re prepared to either receive people into traditional sanctuary or provide safe houses as an alternative to traditional sanctuary.”
When someone enters into “traditional sanctuary” in a church, synagogue or mosque “it’s not private anymore,” he said. “It’s done with an agenda for publicity.”
By law, he said, houses of worship, hospitals and schools are considered “sensitive and [ICE} will not enter them to do their business” without a warrant.
If federal officers were to show up at a house of worship where individuals are being provided sanctuary “with a federal warrant, then the house of worship would have to open it’s doors and let them in,” Alagna said.
For undocumented county residents who fear they could be targeted by immigration officials, members of the network can provide transportation, and might accompany families or individuals to immigration hearings, court dates and appointments.
Because undocumented residents don’t have driver’s licenses, he said, “the network can allow people to stay in their homes and not be out on the street,” where they may feel threatened.
The group is also working with schools to combat bullying and is helping to “sensitize them to the fear children are living with.”
And, if a breadwinner is taken into federal detention, Alagna said the network is prepared to provide financial support.
For a list of affiliated congregations, visit goo.gl/JjrSwS.
The Ulster Immigrant Defense Network is on Facebook and online at ulsterimmigrantdefensenetwork.org. The Network accepts donations online at goo.gl/uhGQ8W.
The Network’s helpline number is (889) 726-7276.