The Interfaith Center of New York is concerned that Immigrations and Customs Enforcement appears to be exploiting a recent tragic killing in Queens to create fear of immigrants. However, ICE’s attack on city officials and NYC’s Sanctuary Laws will not persuade New Yorkers to hand over our community’s long-term safety — already provided by local law enforcement — and the rights of our neighbors to an agency with little accountability and a track record of racism, brutality, and a callous disregard for the sanctity of the human family. The “dangerous agenda” that ICE’s Acting Director attributed to politicians who pass sanctuary laws is, in reality, the will of citizens who value the human rights of their neighbors, the promise of our shared American dream, and the principles of the United States Constitution. Click here for New Sanctuary Coalition’s statement.
In his April 4th, 1967 “Beyond Vietnam” sermon at the Riverside Church, Martin Luther King Jr. said, “We are called to speak for the weak, for the voiceless, for the victims of our nation and for those it calls ‘enemy’ for no document from human hands can make these humans any less our brothers.” ICE’s efforts to make an enemy of our immigrant neighbors does damage to King’s dream of a society in which people were not judged “by the color of their skin but the content of their character.”
