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Rally In Arlington Heights Urges Closing Of Migrant Detention Centers


Participants in Friday’s rally against immigrant detention centers line Northwest Highway. (Igor Studenkov/Journal photo)

As a growing group of protestors lined up along Northwest Highway east of the downtown Arlington Heights train station, Delilah Polyzois stood at the southwest corner of Northwest Highway and Evergreen with her daughter. The pair held up large signs reading “Kids Don’t Belong in Cages” and “Let My People Go”.

As a vehicle drove past heading north on Evergreen, the driver shouted “Make America Great Again!”

“Thank you!” Polyzois responded cheerfully. “We are trying!”

“I think there’s a lot of confusion,” she later told the Journal, “and I think it’s important that everybody knows that seeking asylum is legal and kids shouldn’t be detained.”

Polyzois and her daughter were just two of over 200 people that attended last Friday’s (July 12) rally. On that day, a coalition of religious organizations, human rights organizations and other advocacy organizations held Light for Liberty protests and vigils throughout the country, to demand the closing of the U.S. Border Patrol detention centers where asylum seekers and other migrants attempting to cross the U.S./Mexican border are being held.

For the protestors who spoke to the Journal, the overwhelming sentiment was that they were so outraged, they felt they had to do something. While many said they didn’t believe the protests alone would necessarily moved the needle, they were ready to keep protesting until something changed.

The concerns about the conditions at the detention facilities have been growing for months. A July 2 report by the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General raised alarms about overcrowding, lack of access to showers and clean clothes for both adults and children and failure to follow Border Patrol’s own standards.

“[C]hildren at three of the five Border Patrol facilities we visited had no access to showers,

despite the TEDS standards requiring that ‘reasonable efforts be made to provide showers to children approaching 48 hours in detention,’” the report states. “At these facilities, children had limited access to a change of clothes; Border Patrol had few spare clothes and no laundry facilities.”

Erika Burch, of Mount Prospect, said the organizations involved in Light for Liberty put out calls for volunteers who could organize protests at the local level. She decided to put one together in Arlington Heights, because that’s where she grew up and she still considers it home. Burch said she hoped to do her part to change the discourse around immigration.

“It’s not illegal to seek asylum,” she said. “You don’t walk this far with no shower, no food, no water, because you are safe where you were.”

Burch said she did all her outreach through social media, and while she hoped to get a large turnout, she was prepared to be disappointed, too.

“The fact that the Arlington Heights community is coming together as well is awesome,” she said. “And it’s so great to get the support of everyone driving by. It’s amazing.”

Indeed, the vast majority of the responses from drivers were supportive honks.

State Sen. Ann Gillespie (D-27th) was among the attendees. “I think the way we treat asylum seekers is inhumane,” she said. “I think it’s important for us to stand up and show the ladders at federal level that this isn’t something we can accept.”

When asked what the General Assembly could do to address the issue at the local level, Gillespie pointed to the fact that it passed a ban on private prisons this May. She also said that she personally supports placing migrants in the care of local nonprofit organizations that specialize in refugees.

The protest also drew members of several religious organizations. John Eustice, of Arlington Heights, is the director of Vocation Ministry at Chicago area chapter of the Clerics of St. Viator. He said that his order works with refugees, so he couldn’t stand by and do nothing.

“People deserve dignity,” Eustice said. “We can’t stand for children being treated like animals, or criminals.”

Ikbal Koseli, of Arlington Heights, said she was there to speak on behalf of “those who have been silenced.”

“A lot of families and children cannot express their feelings because they are behind bars, so I’m here to represent and express their feelings,” she said.

Dameon Carot, of Des Plaines, held the “son of immigrants” sign. He said his mother was from Canada and his father was from Malta.

“We are stronger and richer because of our cultural diversity,” Carot said. “I worry about the safety of all those people that trusted us. The separation of children — that should have never happened. It’s disgraceful and I’m ashamed of that.”

Heather, of Arlington Heights, said she reused her “Families Belong Together” sign from the June 30, 2018 protest against the Trump Administration’s family separation policy, which was held at nearby North School Park.

“I call my representatives, I sign petitions, I do everything I can as a citizen to speak out against injustice taking place,” she said. “We don’t seem to be making tons of progress, but that doesn’t seem to be slowing us down. We’re not going to stand by so long as those things keep happening to people. This isn’t what America is.”

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