Lights For Liberty Vigil Planned In Baltimore Ahead Of ICE Raids

BALTIMORE, MD — Community members will gather at Baltimore City Hall Friday night for a vigil to protest immigration policies in place at the southern border in the United States. Attendees will light candles for those undocumented immigrants who are being detained.

The event is being held in coordination with the grassroots Lights for Liberty movement. Almost 600 groups around the globe are expected to hold Lights for Liberty vigils Friday night.

Speakers will share about detention camps at 7 p.m. then attendees will light candles "to bring light to the darkness of the Trump administration's horrific policies," according to organizers.

"Detention of children, families, and asylum seekers is against our values, and it must end now," Baltimore CASA's lead organizer Lydia Walther-Rodriguez said in a statement.

Groups and leaders slated to speak at the Baltimore vigil include the following:

• CASA
• Council for American Islamic Relations
• Jews United for Justice
• Council President Brandon Scott
• Councilman Eric Costello

Candle lighting will take place at 8:15 p.m., the time of the Jewish Sabbath (Shabbat), organizers of the Baltimore vigil say.

"Our elders taught us that in moments of crisis, we are called to sound the alarm, to pray, and to seek mercy for those who are suffering and in danger," Director of Jews United for Justice Baltimore branch Molly Amster said in a statement. "We are lighting our candles in prayer for children suffering in cages on our border and families in danger in the custody of our own government. We will turn our prayers into action toward justice for them."

Afterward, attendees will proceed with their candles to the Baltimore ICE offices at Hopkins Plaza, with a call to action for ICE and Customs and Border Patrol agents to end the detention of children and families.

The vigils Friday night come days before Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials are expected to begin raids in at least 10 major cities, including Baltimore, targeting thousands of immigrants who have been ordered to be deported, according to The New York Times. Agents will also sweep up other immigrants who are present for the arrests even if they are not among the targets, according to the Times.

President Donald Trump first announced the raids with a June 17 Twitter post, saying authorities would start removing "millions of illegal aliens." But he said days later that the operation had been delayed to give Congress a chance to address problems at the southern U.S. border.

On Friday, he confirmed to reporters at the White House that ICE would be conducting a sweep this weekend to pick up people who had outstanding deportation orders. "It's a major operation," Trump said, according to ABC News. He said the agents would be "focused on criminals...before we do anything else" and said undocumented immigrants would be returned to their countries or jailed.

"The images and stories emerging from detention camps are gut-wrenching and horrific," CAIR Director of Maryland Outreach Zainab Chaudry said in a statement.

The Baltimore vigil will be at 7 p.m. on Friday, July 12, at Baltimore City Hall, 100 Holliday Street, Baltimore, MD 21202. It is one of many events planned as part of Lights for Liberty: A Vigil to End Human Concentration Camps.

Other Maryland events are taking place in Annapolis, Catonsville, Chestertown, Columbia, East Baltimore, Elkton, Frederick, Mount Rainier, Towson and Westminster.

SEE ALSO:

• ICE Activity Reported In Columbia
• Bethesda Church Offers Mother Sanctuary From Deportation

This article includes reporting from Patch editor Noah Manskar.