Vigil held for immigrants in detention

A group of about 35 people gathered for a candlelight vigil Friday in Fairfield's Central Park to bring attention to the plight of migrants held in detention centers near the U.S.-Mexico border.

The gathering was part of more than 800 vigils held around the world and known as 'Lights for Liberty: A vigil to end human concentration camps.” Several vigils were held outside the detention centers themselves such as in El Paso, Texas, at a migrant child detention facility in Homestead, Florida, and others.

Fairfield's vigil began in the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit on the east side of the square. Participants sang songs, read poems, and spoke about local organizations that are helping immigrants such as IowaWINS (which stands for Iowa Welcomes its Immigrant Neighbors), based in the First Presbyterian Church in Mt. Pleasant. To help those affected by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid in May 2018, the organization runs a food pantry, provides transportation, offers English classes and provides support for living expenses and legal fees.

After the program inside, the attendees lighted candles and walked around Central Park. Some of them held signs that read 'Close the camps” and 'Keep families together.”

Attendees

Brant Bollman traveled from Oskaloosa for the vigil. He made a large papier-mâché puppet for the occasion that he wore on his head during the vigil. It's about a 5-foot tall likeness of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

'I wanted to make some artwork about the children at the border who have been separated from their parents,” he said. 'I like symbols, and the Lady of Guadalupe is a religious symbol that advocates for the lost, the hurting and the poor. I'm showing her mourning for the children who are separated and lost and even dying in terrible conditions.”

Bollman said he has made artwork to honor the work of his friends who are missionaries in countries such as Liberia and Cambodia.

'I've made a lot of artwork of children mistreated across the world, and right now, I find my heart weeping that the place people are lighting candles is in our country,” he said.

Bollman said he loves America and its freedoms. He hopes people will see that it is a nation of immigrants.

'All of us, unless you're Native American, have a story about ancestors who were frightened of religious intolerance, violence or poverty,” he said. 'They became so concerned for their families that they put them in a boat and made the long trek to America, where they were outsiders. If people in America then had the cold, hardened hearts that a lot of people have today, what would have happened to our families? What would have happened to us? The artist in me has to speak out.”

Fairfield resident Katie Daller read the poem 'The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus. Lazarus wrote the sonnet in 1883 to raise money for the construction of a pedestal for the Statue of Liberty, and 20 years later, her poem was cast onto a bronze plaque and mounted on the pedestal.

The poem contains the famous line:

'Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”

Daller said she read the poem because she's disturbed at what's happening in the country she loves.

'I thought it was appropriate because [the poem] describes the America I grew up in, and that's where I want to continue living … in a country that has those values,” she said.

Daller said she has been plagued by the question of knowing 'when you need to stand up and say something, so you're not caught in Nazi Germany, unable to say anything because of oppression or because it doesn't really affect me.”