Interfaith group holds vigil at immigration detention center

A dozen members of the Detained Immigrants Spiritual Care (DISC) project of the Carbondale Interfaith Council held a prayer vigil Sunday at the Pulaski County Detention Center in Ullin.

Several clergy members offered prayers and statements, and group members chanted words of encouragement to the people at the detention center who were taking recreation in the yard.

"The people in the detention center are having a very difficult time with isolation, fear, and hopelessness," said the Rev. In-Sook Hwang. "Many are separated from their families and worried about their health and their cases. We gathered to pray for hope and encouragement for them."

The Rev. In-Sook and the Rev. BC Hwang, Abdus Sami of the Carbondale Muslim Center, Fr. Uriel Salamanca of St. Joseph Catholic Church in Cobden, Fr. Bob Flannery of St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church, and the Rev. Sarah Richards of the Carbondale Unitarian Fellowship joined other Interfaith Council clergy members and representatives from different faith traditions to offer prayers for the health and well-being of the people who are detained by I.C.E. and by the county at the jail.  

The group called on leaders and decision-makers particularly in Pulaski County to remember their own personal histories of migration. 

As of Oct. 9, ICE reported eight current active cases and 78 total cases of COVID at Pulaski County since the pandemic began.