SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — Members at First Unitarian Universalist and other San Francisco churches took to the streets on Sunday to share the same message.
“Children were dying and the conditions we now know, are beginning to know how appalling they are,” Vanessa Southern said. “How many kids are crowded, that they don’t have adults to take care of them. there’s illness spreading, the food isn’t adequate. The care isn’t adequate and it’s time to stand up as a nation, this isn’t who we are. This isn’t who we want to be and we’re not gonna repeat the worst of our history.”
They are calling for change at the border and across the country.
“I think it’s really become a crisis,” Robert Jumonville said. “I mean the numbers of people coming across the border, the children, the way that were treating them — the way that were not treating them. Essentially stuffing them behind bars and conditions that are atrocious, and I think about my own son.”
Church members say they’re frustrated and angered by the government’s treatment of migrant families and children at ICE detention centers.
“We can’t wait until things get so bad that we mourn, that we regret that we hadn’t acted sooner,” Bruce Neuburge said. “So now is the time and there is no better time than now to raise our voices and express our determination that this has got to stop.”
During its demonstration, the church remembered children who died while in ICE custody.
Saying they’ll continue demonstrations until change happens at the detention centers.
“Nobody wants to see children suffer,” Southern said. “Once we rise up together then I think the sea of change will wash over this nation and we’ll be able to overturn some of the rules, pass some more legislation that’s more protective.”