Pieces on Peace, September 2026 Edition
On Tuesday, September 8, a large crowd rallied outside of the Federal Courthouse in
San Jose, awaiting an update on the temporary injunction that paused construction on
the ICE detention processing center in Gilroy. There were faith leaders from various
traditions; local politicians representing Santa Clara and neighboring counties; and
representatives from groups like ICE Out of the Bay, Amigos de Guadalupe, PACT,
SIREN, cultural groups representing people with Japanese and Filipino backgrounds;
and many more. We were a diverse group, but our chant rang true: “The people united,
will never be divided!” A formal decision has yet to have been issued, but it seems
very likely the judge will order a continued pause on construction, which is good
news for the moment.
As a yonsei fourth-generation Japanese American, when I participate in these
rallies, protests, and vigils against ICE detention, I wonder to myself – who was there
protesting when my grandparents’ and great-grandparents’ generations were being
rounded up and sent to detention centers? Who prayed for my family when they were
behind barbed wire fences? What concerns me about the current situation is that
people are not only being rounded up and confined, but it is happening in private
detention centers. People, actual people who exist behind the elusive idea of the
“corporation,” are profiting from separating families and locking people up in
deplorable conditions. (You might be one of those people, depending on your
investment portfolio. Have you checked?) People are profiting on the outside while
people are dying on the inside.
Speaking in the photo above is our own Rev. Dr. Diana Gibson, Pastor Emerita of First
Presbyterian Church of Palo Alto, joined by Madre Anna Lange-Soto, an Episcopal priest,
and Father Jon Pedigo of People Acting in Community Together (P ACT) Santa Clara. Rev.
Erik Swanson and Rev. Hardy Kim of the Presbytery of San José were also among the clergy
who took part in the courtroom discussion.
As Christians we are called to welcome the stranger, feed the hungry, visit the
imprisoned, do justice and love mercy. Whatever our political leanings, we need to
come together as people of faith to figure out how to intervene when undocumented
immigrants are being dehumanized as quota numbers and line items in profit margins
in an industrialized prison system. We cannot turn a blind eye to a broken immigration
system that routinely abuses the most recent rounds of newcomers to this country.
I invite you to join our Peace and Justice Working group for a Prayer Vigil after our
upcoming NEAR Gathering on Saturday, September 26, at the proposed Gilroy
ICE processing center. We will gather at 1:30pm in the Gilroy Presbyterian Church
parking lot to carpool to the site for a brief prayer vigil from 2 – 2:30. We need God
and we need each other in this moment, and people detained and those who fear it
need our solidarity. More information on the vigil will be circulated. Reach out to Veronica@sanjosepby.org for questions, comments, concerns.
– Veronica Ota, Peacemaking & Justice Advocate