Hundreds Attend 'Families Belong Together' Rallies On LI

GREENPORT, NY — Organizers said it was the largest crowd that's ever gathered at Mitchell Park in Greenport for a vigil, as scores turned out Saturday, carrying signs that said "Families Belong Together," and joining hands and hearts to protest recent separations at the border that has torn a nation sharply in two on both sides of a political divide.

Images of children in cages and a heartbreaking audio recording of toddlers sobbing for their parents after they were separated at the border brought intense focus to the issue of a crackdown on immigration — and created a movement for change.

On Long Island, residents have organized rallies and vigils to protest a decision they call an outright violation of human rights. The "Families Belong Together" organization protested the separations nationwide on Saturday. In addition to the rally at Mitchell Park, there were protests in Huntington Station, Rockville Centre, Westbury and East Meadow.

Sister Margaret Smyth of the North Fork Spanish Apostolate in Riverhead spoke about a family on the North Fork ripped apart when a mom and child were initially detained together, but then, were sent off on a plane, with no word of where they'd been sent, provided to the distraught husband and father. The family was reunited but the experience, Sister Margaret said, was devastating and has affected them very deeply

"This is happening on our own North Fork," Sister Margaret said. "People are coming to the office to say, 'My child is in a detention center. How do I find where they are?' We're here to be saying this shouldn't be happening in the first place. It is very important that each of us have a voice and our voices together make a big, loud sound."

Val Shelby, co-chair of the Southold Town anti-bias task force, led the crowd in a pledge. "We are all immigrants. Every single person here is an immigrant. . . America is full of plenty. You can't think that people are coming here, taking your jobs, your houses. America has an abundance of everything. You can't be so close-minded and selfish. I care. Do you?" She then led the pledge for humanity: "I pledge to treat people with kindness," she said. "I won't turn away from injustice."

Pediatrician Alan Shapiro spoke about spending time at the border, at a detention center in Texas, where there were thousands of women and children. "You can't see from one end to the next," he said.

Shapiro said the crowd had turned out to protest the "cruel and inhumane treatment" families have endured. "How did we get here?" he asked. "How did we fall into inhumanity? When we dehumanize immigrants, that allows government to separate families." And, he asked a cheering crowd, "Are we all going to vote in November?"

"To rip a child away from the arms of their parent whether that mother was breast feeding, or whether that child was clinging for life to his parent, this president thought it was okay to separate them," Shapiro said. "Because of everything we did, because of all the outrage, this ended. There's a really important message here. Separation is the most egregious thing we could have done but detaining families in prison for who knows how long is equally bad for children and families — and we cannot rest."

A table was set up to help register new voters.

Jim Banks, coordinator of multicultural affairs at Suffolk County Community College, said in the movie "Amistad" the enslaved pointed out when people encounter a situation that is hopeless they summon their ancestors. We need to summon the words of our ancestors — the serious documents they produced for us, when we talk about families belonging together. . . When the forefathers of our nation wrote the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, they spoke very clearly about what we're supposed to practice as a nation. We were once regarded as a shining light in our world. That light is dimming."

Faith leaders also spoke.

Fr. Gerardo Romo-Garcia said whether Christian, Jewish, Muslim, white, black, gay, "God loves you." He said long ago, parents, fearing for the life of their child, fled to Egypt. "If Egypt had done what this country is doing, we would have lost track of our savior."

He added, "If the Bible is used to justify this, with the Bible we must answer. The Bible says, 'Welcome the stranger, be kind to the foreigner.'" He told the crowd that their opinions matter. "We must be the voice of the voiceless. We must relight the torch of Lady Liberty."

Retired Baptist minister Margaret Cowden spoke: "This has been an ugly part of who we are but it must not be who we become. If we think the denial of due process for those powerless immigrants represents no threat to our freedom, history has taught us otherwise." And, she said, "I never thought I would live to see hints of some of the cruelest moments of our history repeated." To those that commit those acts in the name of the Scripture, Cowden said: "As I citizen, I say, 'Not in my name.' As a Christian, I say, 'Not in the name of my God.'"

Greenport Village Trustee Doug Roberts also said the crowd had gathered with heavy hearts. "We are here because our federal government has separated children from their asylum-seeking parents at our borders. These kids are scared. All they want is what every young kid wants — to be with their moms and dads."

He added: "There's nobody here who thinks our immigration policy has been perfect. It's a broken system and our representatives in D.C. should focus on fixing it. But using helpless, innocent children as collateral in this effort is depraved and disgraceful."

As a politician, Roberts said, his mission includes creating policy. "If your policy goals requires you to rip kids from their parents, maybe you ought to rethink that policy."

Roberts said the United States is readying to celebrate the 242nd anniversary of its founding, with a document "that said ours would be a nation built on liberty, justice, equality and opportunity. It is the U.S. that is creating the humanitarian crisis. Now, the rest of the world points to us an abuser of people's basic human rights."

The Greenport vigil was organized in support of families, especially those threatened with separation at the border, and included speeches, poetry, music, and "entreaties for civic engagement," according to organizers.

The crowd joined hands to sing "God Bless America" and "We Shall Overcome."

As the event concluded, Banks said, "President Trump, take down that chain link fence around Lady Liberty."

In Sag Harbor, an event, "Walk for Interdependence: Keep Our Families Together," has been organized for July 4, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., on Main Street, with the group meeting at the windmill.

Trump has signed an order to end border separation, but the vigils are slated to continue — and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo vowed to work to provide help to immigrant children.

Many who do not agree with the vigils pointed out that the policy actually dates back to a pre-Trump administration, to the Flores Settlement, which requires the government to release children from immigration detention without unnecessary delay to parents, other adult relatives, or licensed programs willing to accept custody. But if placement is not available, the government is obligated to place children in the "least restrictive" setting appropriate.

That's led to the children being separated immediately, wailing, from parents taken into custody under the new "zero tolerance" police at the border. More than 2,300 children reportedly have been separated from their families at the southern border under the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" policy; Attorney General Jeff Sessions established the policy in April.

Patch photos, video by Lisa Finn.