“Instead of shrinking in fear right now, in order to stop this violence, we have to come together with one voice as a community and say, ‘no more,’” said one rally attendee

Outraged Americans took to the streets over the weekend as part of the “ICE Out For Good Weekend of Action” to decry the brutal killing of Renee Nicole Good by an ICE agent. In Minneapolis – the site of Good’s tragic death and one of more than 1,000 cities that held anti-ICE actions over the weekend – local law enforcement officials estimated that tens of thousands of Americans marched through the streets to mourn, demand justice for her death, and condemn the larger pattern of violence at the hands of masked and unaccountable federal agents nationwide.

“I’m insanely angry, completely heartbroken and devastated, and then just like longing and hoping that things get better,” community member Ellison Montgomery told Reuters. “We’re all living in fear right now,” said Meghan Moore, a mother of two from Minneapolis who joined the protest Saturday,” PBS News reported. “ICE is creating an environment where nobody feels safe and that’s unacceptable,” she continued.

While demonstrators marched in righteous anger, there was also a strong sense of community among neighbors refusing to turn against each other.

“Large crowds of demonstrators were seen in major cities such as Philadelphia, New York, Washington, DC, and Los Angeles,” CNN reported. “Smaller protests took place in Portland, Oregon; Sacramento, California; Boston, Massachusetts; Denver, Colorado; Durham, North Carolina; and Tempe, Arizona, where protesters lined a bridge overlooking a highway.” 

“I’m standing up for my neighbors. I am not happy with what happened in Minneapolis,” Tempe resident Laurie Green told ABC15 Arizona. “In downtown Phoenix, a smaller group of protesters gathered outside ICE offices Saturday morning, voicing similar concerns and calling for more public involvement. ‘It’s heartening,’ said Kelly Carmody, one of the protesters. ‘I hope many others show up and share what they think should be done.’”

In Florida, 97-year-old Milton Clark addressed attendees outside the Everglades detention camp, which has faced serious allegations of brutal violations against detained immigrants. “Liberty is fragile; you must be vigilant,” he said.

ARKANSAS:

CALIFORNIA:

MAINE:

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OHIO:

PENNSYLVANIA:

“Sister Suzie Armbruster, I.H.M., Scranton, recited a prayer during Sunday’s event,” The Times-Tribune reported. 

“We do not need to accept what is happening in our country and in our own community,” said Sister Armbruster. “We stand strong and believe that good people overtake evil. We hold everything in our hearts. We hold all of our brothers and sisters, no matter where they’re from. We hold all of them … those that are living right here in our own community. We remember Renee Good. We remember all those that have been victims of violence, and we know that we can join our hearts and voices in a peaceful way.”

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“In Roanoke, the protest wasn’t just about national headlines,” reported WDBJ7. “For Amanda Vongphakdy, it was personal. Her father, who has lived in Roanoke for most of his life, was taken into ICE custody.” Vongphakdy said that she initially thought her dad was joking when he called her to say that ICE had swept him up. Her dad is a Laotian refugee who has called the U.S. his home since he was just 14. 

“I wake up every day asking myself if this is real,” said Vongphakdy, who felt it was important to take her two children to the protest. “My family and I are grieving a loved one who is alive but not able to be touched.”

“Instead of shrinking in fear right now, in order to stop this violence, we have to come together with one voice as a community and say, no more,” Virginia Harm Reduction Coalition’s Danny Clawson told WDBJ7.

Since Good’s shooting, 160 members of Congress have issued a letter demanding that the administration “immediately suspend the current surge of federal officers and agents to Minneapolis” and that officials “work with an independent agency to ensure transparency and accountability throughout the course of the investigation into this reprehensible event.” Earlier in the month, 30 U.S. senators issued a letter that condemned the administration for endangering communities by pulling law enforcement resources from actual public safety threats – such as  child exploitation, human trafficking, and fentanyl smuggling – in order to “indiscriminately deport noncitizens without criminal records.”

“Redirecting these investigators to pad deportation statistics is not simply irresponsible — it is a dereliction of duty with life-or-death consequences that puts the safety of our children in jeopardy,” senators wrote. “No modern administration has ever attempted a reallocation of this scale or recklessness.”

In New Jersey, state legislators advanced a package of bills “targeting local cooperation with federal immigration agents and expanding protections for immigrants,” the New Jersey Monitor reported.

“The package of bills includes legislation to codify the Immigrant Trust Directive, an attorney general order that limits cooperation between federal immigration authorities and New Jersey law enforcement,” the report said. “The bill would bar police officers from engaging in ‘racially influenced policing,’ like stopping someone based on their suspected citizenship status; require agencies to develop procedures for certain visa requests; and mandate that prosecutors inform criminal defendants of immigration consequences of some charges and convictions.”

In another sign of how ICE’s abuses against U.S. citizens and immigrant neighbors alike have become one of the most pressing issues facing our nation today, the topic also took center stage during Sunday night’s Golden Globe Awards, where presenter Wanda Sykes and attendees wore pins “to honor Renee Macklin Good and Keith Porter while also reminding us what it means to be good to one another in the face of such horror – to be a good citizen, neighbor, friend, ally and human,” the “Be Good” campaign said.

“Of course this is for the mother who was murdered by an ICE agent, and it’s really sad,” Sykes said. “I know people are out marching and all today, and we need to speak up.”

“From the hundreds of protests and rallies across the nation to the array of state and federal bills and legislative accountability being introduced and discussed, it’s clear that the outrage in response to Ms. Good’s killing and the abuse and violence it embodies is widespread and growing,” said America’s Voice Executive Director Vanessa Cárdenas. “Americans from all walks of life are recognizing the mass deportation agenda has gone way too far and this administration is engaged in an unchecked pattern of abuse, violence and impunity. Yet, beyond ICE reform and accountability, we must also work to define, and enact a broader alternative vision of our immigration system that upholds instead of subverts American values.”

 “Putting a foot back in Venezuela means I will be taken to jail, tortured, and potentially killed”

Despite fostering further instability in Venezuela by carrying out an “illegal military operation” that deposed Nicolás Maduro and has left in its deadly wake major questions about the Latin American nation’s future governance, the U.S. is so far refusing to reinstate temporary protections for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan immigrants who have had permission to live and work in the U.S. but may now fear being returned to continued chaos and instability.

The Department of Homeland Security “on Sunday defended the administration’s decision to end Temporary Protected Status for Venezuelans, despite concerns about chaos unfolding in their home country following Nicolás Maduro’s capture,” Axios reported. During an interview with Fox News, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem claimed that “Venezuela today is more free than it was yesterday,” and that “every individual that was under TPS has the opportunity to apply for refugee status.”

But Juan Escalante, an immigrant rights advocate who was born in Venezuela and fled to the U.S. following the rise of Hugo Chavez, called this a “bait-and-switch” tactic that may offer no relief to the approximately 600,000 Venezuelan nationals who have been protected by TPS. That’s because only individuals who are currently outside the U.S. can apply for refugee status, which the Department of Homeland Security acknowledged following Noem’s remarks, NOTUS reported. “Applicants are only eligible for refugee status prior to entering the country,” a spokesperson said.

However, the U.S. has also slashed refugee admissions to a record-low and left the few remaining slots to white South Africans who’ve been singled out for special treatment. While the vetting process for refugees can take up to 36 months, the first Afrikaner arrivals deplaned “on a chartered flight in May, a remarkably quick turnaround given that families from other nations often wait years for their chance to be vetted and brought to the United States,” The New York Times reported in October.

Nor is the asylum system a viable option for Venezuelan TPS holders looking for legal pathways to remain in the U.S. “Venezuelans are currently limited from asylum as well,” NOTUS continued. “U.S. Immigration and Citizenship Services has put on hold all applications for legal status for immigrants from 39 countries, including Venezuela.”

Sebastian, a Venezuelan immigrant and TPS holder who asked to be identified by his first name only, told NPR that he initially welcomed the news of Maduro’s removal from power. But he said his relief quickly turned to worry when he heard about U.S. plans to work with Maduro’s right-hand person and interim president, NPR said. Sebastian, an architect who calls Miami home, “said he feels the danger is still as present in Venezuela.”

“The Trump administration has been saying for a year the conditions have changed for good in Venezuela,” Sebastian said. “But I would ask, if the U.S. has to extract a man who took over the government, how am I supposed to believe that the situation in Venezuela is good? It’s contradictory, I see the opposite — the situation is worse.” Luis Falcón, another immigrant who at one time worked as a Venezuelan presidential honor guard but fled the country after becoming critical of the country’s leadership, similarly feels unsafe to return.

In Philadelphia, Noem’s comments only fueled confusion among Venezuelan community members, 6abc Action News reported. “Community leaders said the secretary’s statement led some Venezuelans to believe they could apply for refugee status while their country’s future remains in question. ‘That was a path of hope for many people. There are many Venezuelans now in limbo,’ said Emilio Buitrago, co-founder of Casa de Venezuela.”

“Those who hoped that no traces of the regime would remain have been confronted with the fact that Maduro’s vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, was sworn in as acting president on Monday,” as America’s Voice consultant Maribel Hastings noted in her latest column. “In other words, Maduro’s regime is still in place.”

Rather than acknowledging that the conditions that merited the implementation of Venezuelan TPS in the first place have not changed –  in fact, explosions and gunfire have been reported in Caracas since the U.S. incursion – the administration’s overall message has been that these contributors and neighbors simply just get out and “go home.”

“The great news for those who are here from Venezuela on temporary protected status is that now they can go home with hope for their country — a country that they love — that there is going to be peace, prosperity and stability,” said the Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs at Homeland Security. “USCIS encourages all Venezuelans unlawfully in the U.S. to use the CBP Home app for help with a safe and orderly return to their country,” said an agency spokesperson.

“Secretary Noem ended Temporary Protected Status for more than 500,000 Venezuelans and now they can go home to a country that they love,” stated a social media post from Homeland Security.

TPS has historically been a humanitarian tool allowing individuals who can’t return to their home countries due to extraordinary circumstances, such as armed conflict or civil war, to live and work in the U.S. But after taking power last year, “Trump administration officials moved to end TPS protection for Venezuelans, a decision the Supreme Court has allowed to stand for now as litigation continues,” The NY Times reported.

“Washington, D.C., will rapidly find itself in a tough spot if credible plans do not materialize for Venezuela, the country, and Venezuelan immigrants in the United States,” Escalante continued in his piece. “A reminder that the Trump Administration, while being credited with Maduro’s downfall, is the same administration that sent Venezuelan men fleeing Maduro’s Venezuela to a gulag in El Salvador.” In her column, Hastings wrote that “the fact is that throughout this process, little has been said about restoring democracy or protecting human rights. Rather, the talk has been about seizing Venezuelan oil and portraying Venezuela as the main exporter of drugs to the United States, even though it is not. A recent United Nations report ranks Venezuela as a marginal country on the drug trafficking route.”

For former presidential palace guard Falcón, “returning now is impossible,” NPR continued. “Putting a foot back in Venezuela means I will be taken to jail, tortured, and potentially killed,” he said.

During a time when those standing at the bully pulpit seek only to divide and instill fear about immigrants who call the United States their home, it’s important that we remember that we’re talking about people, all of whom have their own unique stories, perspectives, hopes and contributions to the communities that have welcomed them.

It’s the main message of this year’s International Migrants Day, which is observed every Dec. 18 and recognizes migrants all around the world. This year’s theme, “My Great Story: Cultures and Development,” seeks to highlight “how human mobility drives growth, enriches societies, and helps communities connect, adapt, and support one another,” said the U.N.’s International Organization for Migration. “In 2025, this message is more urgent than ever as migration continues to shape economies, communities, and global development.”

Here in the United States, Desange Kuenihira is among former refugees working to instill hope in individuals who are facing hardships in their own home countries today. Kuenihira knows first-hand what they’re experiencing and feeling, after she fled deadly conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and sheltered in a Ugandan refugee camp before being resettled in Utah. 

“The experience was arduous and could have broken anyone,” Kuenihira wrote for USA for UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency. “But in the face of all this, I discovered a strength within myself that I didn’t know existed. I realized that resilience isn’t just about surviving—it’s about thriving in spite of the obstacles, about finding hope in even the darkest moments.”

“Adapting to a new life was not easy,” she continued. “The differences in culture, customs and even day-to-day expectations were daunting. But each challenge taught me something valuable. It taught me how to be resourceful, how to be patient, and how to stay hopeful in the face of adversity.” She’s transformed that adversity into unDEfeated, her non-profit uplifting “Uganda’s most vulnerable by enhancing education for underprivileged youth, and providing support for families, and single working mothers.”

Now an American citizen, Kuenihira also authored “Undefeated Woman,” a memoir “chronicling her refugee journey from the daily struggles of life in a refugee camp in Uganda to resettling in the United States,” USA for UNHCR said. Earlier this year, Desange was also named USA for UNHCR’s 2025 Refugee Storyteller Celebration winner, and was a World Refugee Day featured storyteller.

The more than three million refugees who, like Kuenihira, who have been resettled in the U.S. since 1975 do so much more than enrich our country with their aspirations and traditions, they enrich it literally. One Health and Human Services study from 2024 found that refugees and asylees are net contributors to the U.S. economy, paying an estimated $581 billion in revenue to local, state, and federal economies. “They contributed an estimated $363 billion to the federal government through payroll, income, and excise taxes, and $218 billion to state and local governments, through income, sales, and property taxes.”

Refugees also “enter the workforce at high rates, often filling labor shortages in critical industries,” the International Rescue Committee said earlier this year, and strengthen communities through their resilience and skills. “In cities like Buffalo, NY, and Fargo, ND, refugee entrepreneurs have revitalized entire neighborhoods, turning abandoned storefronts into thriving small businesses that create jobs and boost local economies.”

In fact, immigration overall benefits all of us. Immigrants are natural-born entrepreneurs who outpace U.S.-born Americans when it comes to starting a small business. Immigrant-led businesses employed nearly eight million Americans, according to data from the New American Economy. Immigrant entrepreneurs have been a critical component of our nation’s economic growth, boasting $1.3 trillion in total sales, said the New American Economy. And, future GDP growth depends on neighbors like Delinec Fernández, a Venezuelan immigrant who also now calls Indiana her home and established the state’s first Venezuelan bakery. 

Sweet Deli Venezuelan Bakery got its start as a way to bring in some income during the COVID-19 pandemic, she told BORGEN Magazine. “Today, the bakery serves not only as a cultural bridge but also as an economic engine.”

“Migration has always been a force that binds the world together,” UN Women said ahead of International Migrants Day. “Across borders and generations, the movement of people has driven cultural exchange, strengthened communities, and energized economies. At the heart of this story are women.”

“Whether migrating themselves, supporting loved ones from afar, or adapting to the changes migration brings to their households, women play a vital and often invisible role. Their earnings sustain families. Their care work supports entire communities. Their leadership helps societies adapt and flourish.”

“As we mark this day, UN Women honours the strength, leadership, and courage of migrant women and girls everywhere,” the statement continued. “Their stories are stories of hope, transformation, and global connection. Their contributions are essential — to families, communities, and the shared future we are building together.”

We are living in a time that demands moral clarity. Now more than ever, we should be thankful that so many Americans of faith are meeting the moment by standing with immigrant families, showing that compassion and justice should guide our communities, not cruelty and chaos.

Several of these faith leaders joined a virtual briefing held by America’s Voice to discuss why they’ve felt it’s been imperative to speak out at this time and what we can all do to support and uplift the immigrant neighbors who contribute so much to the country we all call home. Speakers included Rabbi Susan Goldberg, Nefesh founder and Bend the Arc board member in southern California; Rev. David Black, Senior Pastor of The First Presbyterian Church of Chicago; and Father Gary Graf, Head Pastor at Our Lady of the Heights Catholic Church and Priests for Justice for Immigrants member.

During her remarks, Rabbi Goldberg expressed the importance of sharing the stories of what’s happening on the ground amid the administration’s anti-immigrant agenda, which in recent days have included a college student dragged from the airport and deported while trying to surprise her family for Thanksgiving.

“As we’ve expressed, it is so important right now that these stories are getting out there, and that the reality of what is happening is shared, because the level of cruelty is just unbelievable right now,” said Rabbi Goldberg. “And a lot of people who are not upfront and close to it don’t know how much this authoritarian state has really moved in and are literally just grabbing people off the street, throwing them down on the ground, punching people in the face who barely resist.” 

Rabbi Goldberg said that many of the individuals targeted by masked ICE agents are people who are trying to follow the rules by attending their immigration court dates, only to end up targeted for detention and deportation. Rabbi Goldberg noted that as a Jewish person, she knows this is a slippery slope that endangers everyone. Indeed, one count shows that at least 170 American citizens have been harassed by ICE. But ordinary people are stepping up to protect their neighbors, she said.

“There’s starting to be this shift where people really are like, ‘no, actually you can’t do that to my neighbor, no, you can’t do that to my friend’s kid at school,’ right? So people are walking kids to school to keep them safe, people are taking care of folks’ kids who’ve been taken by ICE,” Rabbi Goldberg continued. “Yes, protests and vigils are important, but there’s also this incredible rapid response and caretaking that’s happening. One of the things we all need to think of is like, what can I do, what is the skill set I have, what can I do?”

In his remarks, Father Graf, who is known in his community as Father Gary and just this month completed an 800-mile pilgrimage walking from the childhood home of Pope Leo XIV to the Statue of Liberty, stressed the importance of neighbors coming together face-to-face. He brought up an example of holding bilingual liturgies and picnics. He said that while some Chicagoans didn’t speak the same language as their immigrant neighbors, there was a sense of understanding and community. 

Senior citizens at the events “were just enthralled with these young families who came together,” Father Gary said. “They spoke a different language, they weren’t accustomed to having Spanish-speaking in their midst, but they responded so well because I think they saw their own children and grandchildren in them, and they relived their own youth when they created a parish together. They saw this next crowd coming in, and they welcomed them as the next generation. And because they had community, felt welcomed, they really made it their home, and it was just wonderful coming together, you know, to be able to do that.”

In his remarks, Rev. Black, who gained national recognition after he was shot in the head with a pepper ball by an officer while peacefully bearing witness outside a Chicago-area ICE facility in September, said he was particularly worried about conditions at the kinds of detention facilities where he was physically attacked. Individuals “just disappear,” he said. 

“And the reality is like, you know, Auschwitz was an outsourced concentration camp for the German government,” Rev. Black said. “The prisons that people are being sent to are outsourced internment camps for the American government. I think that there’s more connection that needs to be made there, there’s very little that we know about the conditions of these camps, except for the big famous one in El Salvador, which has been described as a death camp by independent observers. So I would love to see more attention paid to what is happening to people when they are held in custody and then deported, and what we know, and what we don’t know, ‘cause I think that’s really important.” 

But all three faith leaders expressed optimism in the displays of unity seen all across the country during the past months. Rev. Black noted that while some historic displays of faith-based actions “insisted on a certain amount of conformity,” the movement that he sees now is across faiths and includes many people from secular spaces. 

“It’s saying we show up as a lot of different people, with a lot of different politics, with a lot of different beliefs, and it actually makes us more powerful,” he said. “We can coordinate and align across those differences, rather than figuring out what we can all agree on, and then only operating on the very limited basis of what we can agree on. So I would just encourage people to show up in space and fully own who they are.”

Many have been heeding this call for solidarity with America’s immigrant communities. In the San Diego area, community members organized by the San Diego Diocese have been volunteering to accompany their neighbors to immigration court. In Chicago, a group of cyclists have dedicated themselves to buying out street vendors’ products so sellers can return back home quickly and be safe. In Charlotte, PTA members have been standing guard at school drop-offs while other neighbors have rushed to training sessions to find out how to keep a watch out for ICE.

As speakers made clear, how you can help is all about your own skills set and comfort level. Maybe you think you’d be great at helping make a whistle kit. Maybe you know you’d excel at helping your church organize a food drive. Maybe it’s buying a delicious snack from an immigrant food vendor so they can end their day as early as possible and get back home to their family. 

Each act has value, each act shows immigrants that someone cares about them, and, during a time when those in power only become more extreme and out-of-touch with most Americans in their policies and words, each act shows that we refuse to turn against our neighbors and we will stand with each other in this country we all call our home.

“If the Holy Family had been in Charlotte two weeks ago, they would have been putting the baby Jesus in handcuffs because he wouldn’t have his papers,” said one faith leader

Churches in Illinois, Massachusetts, and North Carolina are using nativity scenes that have traditionally depicted the birth of Jesus to advocate for immigrant families who call this country their home but now face separation due to the Trump administration’s cruel and chaotic anti-immigrant policies.

In one display at St. Susanna Parish in Massachusetts, the entire Holy Family is missing from the nativity scene. Behind the manger that would typically hold the infant Jesus is a sign reading “ICE was here.” It notes that “The Holy Family is safe in The Sanctuary of our Church.” Father Stephen Josoma, pastor of St. Susanna Church, told National Catholic Reporter that “the Gospel is clear about treating immigrants with respect. He noted the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ recent ‘special message’ where the bishops expressed their solidarity with migrants amid the federal government’s immigration crackdown.”

While this isn’t Father Josoma’s first themed nativity display – in 2018, the church “also attracted national attention when its Nativity scene depicted the Christ Child in a cage and the three Wise Men behind a wall,“ National Catholic Reporter noted – he has received pushback from the Boston Archdiocese, which criticized the church’s actions as “politically divisive.” The acting director of ICE – which earlier this year made sacred spaces vulnerable to mass deportation raids and has been terrifying the faithful in the months since – similarly joined in condemning the church. But Father Josoma said the display stays until he can have a further conversation with church leaders.

“You feed the hungry, you take care of the homeless, you clothe the naked, you take care of people and their needs,” he said. “[ICE raids] are the complete antithesis of that on so many levels.” The New York Times noted that some St. Susanna Parish congregants “said they were confused by the demand from the archdiocese,” which comes just weeks after U.S. Catholic bishops, backed by Pope Leo XIV, issued a near-unanimous rebuke of U.S. immigration policy. The commonwealth’s junior U.S. senator also expressed his support for the church, writing that “In this moment, we are all called to stand up for our shared humanity.”

The leaders and congregants of St. Susanna Parish do not stand alone. Amid “rising faith-based pushback” to mass deportation policies, “religious leaders say they are hoping to make the Christmas story relevant to modern believers by recalling the dire circumstances faced by Jesus and his parents as recounted in the gospels,” Jack Jenkins writes at Religion News Service. In Illinois, the Lake Street Church of Evanston’s nativity display depicts baby Jesus with his hands zip-tied and “wrapped in a thin blanket resembling aluminum foil, which the church said is a reference to the emergency blankets used in detention facilities,” Fox32 reported.

“Masked centurions, officers in the ancient Roman army, are depicted in sunglasses and green vests labeled ‘ICE,’” the report continued. Both Mary and Jesus are also wearing respirator masks, referencing federal agents’ intentional gassing of Americans demonstrating against the detention and deportation of their immigrant neighbors. 

“The Holy Family were refugees,” Lake Street Church said according to Fox32. “This is not political interpretation, this is the reality described in the stories our tradition has told and retold for millenia. By witnessing this familiar story through the reality faced by migrants today, we hope to restore its radical edge, and to ask what it means to celebrate the birth of a refugee child while turning away those who follow in that child’s footsteps.” The church is notably led by Rev. Michael Woolf, who was tackled to the ground last month while bearing witness outside a Chicago-area ICE facility.

 

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In North Carolina, mask deportation agents surround the Holy Family in the nativity scene erected by Charlotte’s Missiongathering Church in collaboration with art collective TaskForce, the Charlotte Observer reports. “The goal is to translate the Christmas story into a modern context,” Rev. Andrew Shipley told the outlet. “If the Holy Family had been in Charlotte two weeks ago, they would have been putting the baby Jesus in handcuffs because he wouldn’t have his papers.”

In just one example of the terror unleashed on Charlotte residents during Border Patrol’s occupation last month, as many as 20 parishioners were doing yard work at their church when agents descended on the area and forced several individuals, including at least one teenaged U.S. citizen, to flee from the church grounds in terror, the Charlotte Observer also reported. Rev. Shipley shared that Missiongathering Church “has been helping families who are afraid to leave their homes” following the operation. 

Missiongathering Church itself faced an attack when a man stormed onto church property on Friday and tore down the nativity scene, CNN reports. The unidentified man also tore up Know Your Rights signs before driving away.

But that violent outburst isn’t reflective of the broader Charlotte community, which has come together to protect its immigrant residents. Following Border Patrol’s invasion of the area under the so-called “Operation Charlotte’s Web,” hundreds of neighbors signed up to be trained on how to watch out for mass deportation agents, Religion News Service reported. Amity Presbyterian Church “announced it would host a training on how to respond to the influx of federal immigration agents into the neighborhood. Later that evening, nearly 300 people filled Amity Presbyterian’s sanctuary to listen to representatives from Siembra NC, a secular immigrant rights group.” 

Nativity scenes critical of U.S. immigration policy were also a presence during the first Trump administration. In addition to St. Susanna Parish’s display in 2018, a nativity scene created by Indianapolis’ Christ Church Cathedral during the height of the family separation crisis depicted Mary, Jesus, and Joseph in a cage. The following year in California, Claremont United Methodist Church’s nativity scene depicted the Holy Family separated entirely and caged from each other. “Shortly after the birth of Jesus, Joseph and Mary were forced to flee with their young son from Nazareth to Egypt to escape King Herod, a tyrant,” the church said at the time. “They feared persecution and death. What if this family sought refuge in our country today?”

It was a valid question then, and a valid question now as our nation’s immigrant families face an unprecedented – and hugely unpopular – mass deportation campaign that’s currently threatening millions of faithful.

 

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For St. Susanna Parish congregant Elizabeth Doris-Gustin, the Christmas displays are something she looks forward to every year, The New York Times noted. She feels they have something important to say. “‘You might not agree with everything, but it makes you think,’ she said. ‘I wish a few more churches would be this bold.’ She hopes the parish will keep this year’s display, she said. ‘I’m going to say a little prayer that they keep it up.’”

Father Gary Graf, known as Father Gary, sought to honor our immigrant neighbors one step at a time

This week, Father Gary Graf, a Catholic priest from Chicago, made his long-awaited arrival to the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor, completing a 800-mile walk that began at the childhood home of Illinois-born Pope Leo XIV and sought to urge solidarity with the immigrant families who call this country their home. An emotional video shared by the “Step Out, Speak Up” campaign on Tuesday showed Father Graf – known as Father Gary by his community members – and several supporters bearing the rain and bitter cold as their ferry approached Liberty Island.

“This journey has brought us to this point, to the base of this statue, Lady Liberty,” Father Gary said from the base of the iconic statue that for decades greeted millions of immigrants who were processed at nearby Ellis Island during the first half of the 20th century. “The incredible emotion, just of people who have gathered around this morning, in the rain, coming out here, and look at faces that represent people from every country of the world to this present moment.” 

Father Gary said that each individual “who has stepped foot at the base of this statue and has entered into this great city of New York” has been a “blessing … to this great nation.”

 

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Father Gary’s 800-mile journey to New York City began nearly two months ago at the boyhood home of Pope Leo in Dolton, Illinois, motivated by the horrific mistreatment of immigrants at the hands of masked mass deportation agents. Catholic News Agency reported last month that 67-year-old Father Graf walked nearly 20 miles a day, taking just one day off when he fell off a horse while visiting a parish, breaking several ribs. “That day, friends walked in his stead.” Incredibly, Father Gary continued his pilgrimage undeterred.

“Graf, the pastor of the mostly Hispanic Our Lady of the Heights Catholic Church in Chicago Heights and a longtime member of Priests for Justice for Immigrants, has committed his life to helping immigrants,” Catholic News Agency continued. “Ordained in 1984, he spent five years as a priest in Mexico serving a people ‘with whom I fell deeply in love.’” 

The faith leader told Catholic News Agency that following the administration’s senseless raids targeting his beloved Chicago community, he “felt a call that was directly from above” to do something.

 

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“During his quiet walks through rural farmland, he has marveled at the amount of labor it took to build the many roads, bridges, and overpasses he has seen,” the outlet said. “I’m sure the hands of many immigrants helped build these things,” Father Gary correctly noted. In addition to his exhaustive traveling, Father Gary set aside time on Day of the Dead last month to commemorate the at least 25 individuals who have died while in federal immigration custody. From New Jersey, he sent a message of hope for Thanksgiving, urging families to keep the faith. Reaction to his pilgrimage was positive, he shared. “He said many of the conversations he did have — in small towns, rest stops and parish halls — were marked by curiosity rather than hostility,” National Catholic Reporter said.

 

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In spite of the serious injuries he suffered during his traveling, Father Gary arrived in New York this week as planned, greeted “with a warm reception hosted by an interfaith group,” independent news outlet Our Town NY reported.

“Graf, perhaps lifted by the steadfastness of his mission, appeared serene at the Dec. 2 ceremony held in his honor,” the outlet said. “He patiently listened in a front row seat as faith leaders representing multiple religions praised his work, as well as emphasized their opposition to current federal immigration policy, such as the ICE raids that have occurred in New York City and other municipalities.” National Catholic Reporter said the interfaith program featured short recordings of Chicago-area children describing “losing sleep, living in anger and feeling trapped in constant fear as their undocumented parents navigate arrest risks and custody threats. The room fell quiet.”

Father Eric Cruz, Director of Pastoral Migratoria of NY and one of the interfaith leaders at the service, said in a video message shared by America’s Voice that he and others were present “to give voice” to those children and others targeted under federal immigration policy:

National Catholic Reporter noted that Father Gary was in the midst of his pilgrimage when U.S. Catholic bishops, backed by Pope Leo XIV, issued a rare, stinging rebuke of U.S. immigration policy.

“We are disturbed when we see among our people a climate of fear and anxiety around questions of profiling and immigration enforcement,” the bishops wrote. “We are saddened by the state of contemporary debate and the vilification of immigrants. We are concerned about the conditions in detention centers and the lack of access to pastoral care. We lament that some immigrants in the United States have arbitrarily lost their legal status. We are troubled by threats against the sanctity of houses of worship and the special nature of hospitals and schools. We are grieved when we meet parents who fear being detained when taking their children to school and when we try to console family members who have already been separated from their loved ones.”

National Catholic Reporter said that Father Gary used his time at the podium to say that while his journey was finally completed, it’s up to all of us to keep up the fight for justice and dignity for immigrant families.

“My feet can rest, but my spirit cannot rest, not while immigrant children cry alone, not while families are torn apart, not while strangers — men, women and children, flesh and bone, heart and soul, passion and courage, holding families together in the midst of government-imposed fear — are treated as anything less than kin,” Father Gary said. “To tear families apart is to wound the very heart of God. And now, after all these miles, I say again: It is time to step up. It is time to speak out.”

It should be of comfort to Father Gary that from buying out food vendors’ products to blowing whistles in order to warn about masked and armed  immigration agents invading neighborhoods, Americans from all backgrounds have been coming together to find new and creative ways to protect and defend immigrant communities. In the Charlotte area – which has been one of the major areas most recently targeted by masked mass deportation agents — community members have flooded trainings to learn how to help keep their neighbors safe during ICE and CBP invasions.

Among them has been Beth Clemens, who stationed herself outside a Latino-owned bakery that was forced to close during Border Patrol’s occupation, CNN reported. That wasn’t okay with Clements, who threw on a yellow vest worn by immigration watch volunteers in order to patrol the area around the business. “I’m going to walk the streets with my whistle and I want to keep my neighbors protected,” she said, “because they deserve protection and they deserve to live in a world where they’re not scared.”

Small Business Saturday, observed this year on November 29, recognizes the small businesses that are the heart and soul of the American economy. They employ nearly half of all American workers and make up 43.5% of the nation’s GDP, according to a 2024 report from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. “Since the late 1990’s, small businesses have accounted for between 43.5% and 50.7% of the United States’ gross domestic output (GDP), which equates to trillions of dollars of economic activity.”

And, immigrant-led small businesses have been critical to this massive economic output, because without the skills and entrepreneurial spirit of immigrant business owners, our national economy would be stagnant, local communities would be less vibrant, and Americans less able to experience and enjoy the essential contributions of diverse cultures. Just look at the facts.

• Immigrants are natural-born entrepreneurs: Immigrants outpace U.S.-born Americans when it comes to starting a small business, accounting for 30% of all small-business growth. But it’s not just small businesses: foreign-born entrepreneurs are more likely to start companies at all scales, according to one 2022 study from top economists. “Co-authored by an MIT economist, the study finds that, per capita, immigrants are about 80 percent more likely to found a firm, compared to U.S.-born citizens,” MIT News reported in 2022. Altogether, immigrants make up one in five business owners, the New American Economy said in 2019.
• Immigrants are job creators, employing millions of American workers: Immigrants are job-stealers? Pfft. Immigrant-led businesses employed nearly eight million Americans, according to further data from the New American Economy. Additionally, the 2022 study cited by MIT News further found that “immigration to the U.S. is associated with a net gain in job availability, contrary to the common perception that immigrants fill jobs that U.S.-born workers would otherwise have.” The study authors say the findings “suggest that immigrants act more as ‘job creators’ than ‘job takers’ and that non-U.S. born founders play outsized roles in U.S. high-growth entrepreneurship.” This likely stems from immigrants creating their own businesses after encountering road blocks in their own job searches. Relatedly, creating a long-overdue pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants would add 200,000 new jobs to the economy, as well as “increase Americans’ income by $791 billion and generate $184 billion in additional state and local and federal tax revenue from currently undocumented immigrants,” FWD.us said in a 2020 report.
• Immigrant-led businesses have been essential to our economic success: Immigrant entrepreneurs have been a critical component of our nation’s economic growth, boasting $1.3 trillion in total sales, said the New American Economy. But on a more macro level, immigrant entrepreneurs have been credited with revitalizing neighborhoods, in particular in rural areas, by reversing population declines and boosting local economies by opening stores that keep main streets alive, the Center for American Progress said in 2018. “New Caribbean restaurants and food trucks have opened across south Springfield where once abandoned neighborhoods are now bustling with residents,” The Guardian previously reported on Haitian immigrants who now call southwestern Ohio home. “They are entrepreneurs, they want to innovate,” Casey Rollins, executive director of the St Vincent de Paul Society’s Springfield chapter, told The Guardian. “They just work excessively once they are eligible.” In Dayton, Ohio, Dayton Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Christina Mendez doubled down, saying “you have to have culture … if you don’t have the things that stand up a culture, then people don’t want to live, work or stay here long-term.”
• You can’t have continued economic success without immigrant contributors: The federal government’s projections of future GDP growth will be “unrealistic” under its own immigration policies, according to a report from the Economic Policy Institute. “If the number of work hours falls because the labor force shrinks, this essentially translates one-for-one into slower aggregate growth,” wrote economist and co-author Josh Bivens. “Policymakers who do not want to see the pace of GDP growth shrink relative to the past history of U.S. growth really only have one option: allowing larger flows of immigration.” Previous research has found that undocumented immigrants contributed an astounding $96.7 billion in federal, state, and local taxes in 2022. Immigrant households overall paid $524.7 billion in total taxes in 2021, “a slight increase since 2019,” Immigration Impact said in 2023. Their contributions benefit all Americans: “Through their tax payments, immigrants play an outsized role in supporting public services like schools and police departments as well as social safety net programs, such as food stamps,” Immigration Impact continued.

Among these immigrant entrepreneurs and contributors are Venezuelan immigrants and Indiana residents Daniela Avila Urdaneta and Anthony Rojas, who transformed an old school bus into Plátanos Venezuelan Food, a mobile restaurant that serves meals of savory shredded beef, rice, beans, fried plantains, and other delights to Hoosiers. Delinec Fernández, another Venezuelan immigrant who also now calls Indiana her home, operates the state’s first Venezuelan bakery just steps away. Sweet Deli Venezuelan Bakery got its start as a way to bring in some income during the COVID-19 pandemic. “Today, the bakery serves not only as a cultural bridge but also as an economic engine,” BORGEN Magazine reported.

In the San Francisco Bay Area, graphic designer Derrick Li struggled to find work in the field after arriving in the United States from China, the San Francisco Examiner reported in June. “A friend helped him find classes at the Charity Culture Services Center where he learned how to bartend which led him to a successful career as a bartender and owner of Blind Pig Speakeasy Lounge,” said the San Francisco Office of Economic and Workforce Development and SFGovTV. Today, he’s not only a top-ranking bartender, he owns and operates Blind Pig Speakeasy Lounge.

While the backgrounds and immigration stories of these individuals vary, a common theme unites them: a drive to create community and an unfailing belief in the American Dream. “We wanted Venezuelans to have a space that feels like home,” Fernández said, “but we also wanted to prove that small immigrant businesses can strengthen the local economy.” And when immigrants succeed, America succeeds.

You may not see them, but they are very much welcome guests at our Thanksgiving table. Most of us won’t actually see the farm and meatpacking workers at our family feast this year, but that doesn’t mean their presence won’t be felt or should go unappreciated. From delicious side dishes like green beans and corn, to main courses like turkey with gravy or roasted ham, to desserts like pumpkin pie served with a healthy dollop of whipped cream, these essential workers labored in fields, orchards, dairy farms, and factories to feed us, our families and friends. 

And a major percentage of these skilled and essential workers are immigrants, many of whom lack legal immigration status.

In fact, of the roughly 2.4 million farmworkers who help feed our nation from coast to coast, at least half are undocumented. This number is even more pronounced in agriculture-rich states like California, where as many as 75% of workers lack legal immigration status. Meatpacking plants similarly rely on foreign-born labor, with immigrants making up nearly 40% of meat processing workers. Not only are these workers the backbone of these industries, our Thanksgiving celebrations simply couldn’t happen without their labor and contributions.

For example, green bean harvesting can be a grueling experience for farm laborers, UnitedFarm Workers (UFW) noted last year. “Stephanie is shown picking green beans in Fresno, CA.  She spends up to 8 hours on her knees filling buckets amid temps that can reach 103° or higher. This work is piece rate, instead of workers being paid an hourly wage.” While certain varieties of green beans must be harvested by hand, sturdier ones can be picked by machine, the union noted.

How about a sweet potato casserole with a crunchy pecan topping? Some of the California laborers who help get sweet potatoes from farm to table begin their day as early as 4 in the morning. “‘Marie’ shared this pic from where she is sorting sweet potatoes based on their shape and size in Merced county CA,” UFW wrote on Bluesky this month. “Each day our team of six people usually fill about 8-10 of these bins that could weigh more than 1,000 lbs each,” Mari said. 

And while the nearly two-thirds of nuts harvested in the U.S. come from California, the pecans for that sweet potato casserole topping are likely from Georgia. In that state, most agricultural workers are foreign-born.

If your Thanksgiving specialty is a charcuterie board, it also wouldn’t be possible without the contributions of farmworkers in dairy states like California, Idaho, Utah, Vermont, South Dakota and Wisconsin, which are largely responsible for producing the fresh milk, delicious cheeses, and other dairy products that are enjoyed by Americans all over the country. 

“Workers from Mexico and other Latin American countries make up an estimated 70% of the labor force on Wisconsin dairy farms,” the Wisconsin Examiner reported in 2024. And, many may not realize that dairy work can be dangerous work. Idaho dairy worker “Rosa” starts her day by ushering thousands of cows into a milking area. Each can weigh up to 1,000 pounds. “There are a lot of ways to get hurt on a dairy farm, and being crushed by cows is one of them,” the New York Times reported last year. “The animals are languid and gentle, but they startle easily. In a panic, they can move fast.”

There’s no dispute among dairy experts about what would happen without the skills and contributions of essential immigrant workers like Rosa. “When I mentioned to Pete Wiersma, the president of the Idaho Dairymen’s Association, that I’d read a study predicting that the price of milk would nearly double if foreign-born workers were removed from the industry, he shook his head,” wrote the NYT’s Marcela Valdes. “‘I don’t think there would be milk,’ Wiersma said. ‘I just don’t think we could get it done.’”

How about some pumpkin pie with whipped cream? Every fall, immigrants are among the essential farmworkers who help harvest approximately two billion pumpkins so we can all carve, decorate, and bake our way through Thanksgiving. “The local workers wouldn’t do this work,” one Pennsylvania pumpkin farmer said in 2019. “I couldn’t operate without [migrant labor], and I wouldn’t even try to.”

Of course, we can’t forget the star of the Thanksgiving feast: turkey. The factories where meat and poultry products are processed before heading to consumers “are filled with hard-working immigrants like the Martinez family,” who “moved to Iowa from California in the 1990s to work in Tyson’s Perry plant for double what they were earning in California,” WFYI reported in 2021.

It also can be dangerous work, and not just because of sharp cutting tools. During the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, meatpacking plants were hit hard by the virus, nearly killing Concepcion Martinez, the patriarch of the Martinez family. 730 workers were sickened at his Perry, Iowa plant alone, WFYI said. Mr. Martinez, described as a workaholic by his son Amner, initially refused to say how sick he really was. Risks extend to other essential workers. Extreme heat can be deadly for workers who labor outside. It’s why advocates continue to urge the passage of heat standards that ensure outdoor workers get water, shade, rest breaks, and relevant training needed to protect their lives.

“I know exactly the hard part of [the job],” Amner told WFYI. “And I also know the opportunity that has provided my entire family to just move out of poverty, really.”

“Despite these conditions, immigrant farm workers continue to toil in our fields, serving as the backbone of America’s food production. Without their labor, many farms would struggle to produce enough food,” the American Immigration Council said last year. “The threat of mass deportations under the current political climate looms large. Undocumented workers make up a sizable portion of the agricultural workforce, and their removal could have devastating consequences. Beyond the immediate impact on farms, such actions could disrupt supply chains, increase food prices, and strain communities that rely on agriculture.”

It’s a shameful way to treat workers who are deeply enmeshed in our society as contributors, parents to U.S. citizen children, and long-settled community members of a decade or more. The simple fact is, that without these workers, no matter their legal immigration status, farms and factories couldn’t operate and we couldn’t enjoy our everyday meals, much less Thanksgiving. As many of these workers now face unprecedented attacks, this year more than ever, it’s essential to recognize these invisible guests at our tables and to continue fighting for them.

America was built on the sweat and hard work of 250 years of successive generations of immigrants coming to help build the strongest nation on earth. Without the skills and entrepreneurial spirit of immigrant business owners, our national economy would be stagnant, local communities would be less vibrant, and our people less able to experience and enjoy the essential contributions of diverse cultures. 

For example, midwesterners would be missing out on a pair of Venezuelan immigrant entrepreneurs’ signature dish of pabellón criollo, a hearty and delicious meal consisting of savory shredded beef, rice, beans, and fried plantains.

“In the middle of a Home Depot parking lot, surrounded by the quiet suburbs of Indiana, stands Plátanos Venezuelan Food: a bright white school bus turned into a dining spot,” BORGEN Magazine reports. “From its window, the smell of fried plantains and shredded beef drifts out, as if looking for those far from home. Inside, Daniela Avila Urdaneta and Anthony Rojas, who are Venezuelan migrants, serve homemade food that does more than fill the stomach. Every dish carries a piece of home, sparking smiles and sometimes a few tears.”

For the pair, this schoolbus-turned-eatery has been a journey of both challenges and love. Avila Urdaneta and Rojas originally arrived in Connecticut but struggled to get their bearings. But once in the midwest, the pieces finally began to come together and Plátanos Venezuelan Food was born.

 

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“Today, their clientele is diverse: from Venezuelans searching for the taste of home to locals and other Latinos eager to try something new,” BORGEN Magazine reports. “Even Noblesville’s mayor, Chris Jensen, has recommended them for local and private events.” Last December, Plátanos Venezuelan Food earned additional praise after Indianapolis Monthly named the eatery to its best-of list. “Step aboard, grab a stool or slide into one of the two-seater booths, and watch as the chefs in back work their magic, sizzling up classics like meat-stuffed arepas and fried plantains.”

But Avila Urdaneta and Rojas aren’t the only Venezuelan entrepreneurs boosting the local economy one delicious bite at a time. BORGEN Magazine reports that just a short walk away, Delinec Fernández, also known in her community as Deli, owns and operates Indiana’s very first Venezuelan bakery. Sweet Deli Venezuelan Bakery got its start as a way to bring in some income during the COVID-19 pandemic. “Today, the bakery serves not only as a cultural bridge but also as an economic engine.”

“It employs other immigrants, stimulates local commerce by sourcing ingredients from Indiana suppliers and even contributes to the Venezuelan economy by importing small quantities of traditional products,” BORGEN Magazine continued. “‘We wanted Venezuelans to have a space that feels like home,’ Deli says, ‘but we also wanted to prove that small immigrant businesses can strengthen the local economy.’”

 

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But the truth is that immigrant entrepreneurs like Avila Urdaneta, Rojas, and Fernández are critical to the entire nation’s economic sustainability. Not only has the research shown that immigrants outpace U.S.-born Americans when it comes to opening a business, our economic growth as a nation is simply not possible without them, as recent findings from the nonpartisan thinktank Economic Policy Institute have made clear. And those tired claims that immigrants are job-stealers? “The findings suggest that immigrants act more as ‘job creators’ than ‘job takers’ and that non-U.S. born founders play outsized roles in U.S. high-growth entrepreneurship,” said one 2022 study authored by top economists.

In fact, the New American Economy’s 2019 study found that immigrant-led businesses “employed almost eight million American workers and generated $1.3 trillion in total sales,” cementing this demographic as an economic powerhouse. The Bipartisan Policy Center noted in 2022 that “the United States’ economic success story would not exist without immigrant entrepreneurs with a range of backgrounds and skill levels who were willing to launch their business ideas here.”

And when immigrants succeed, America succeeds. This past summer, SFGovTV and San Francisco’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development highlighted the story of Derrick Li, who was a graphic designer by training in his home country of China but struggled to find work in this field after arriving in the United States, the San Francisco Examiner reported in June. “A friend helped him find classes at the Charity Culture Services Center where he learned how to bartend which led him to a successful career as a bartender and owner of Blind Pig Speakeasy Lounge,” said SFGovTV and the Office of Economic and Workforce Development. 

In addition to now helping boost the city’s local economy, Li came in second in the 2024 edition of World Class, “otherwise known as the Super Bowl of competitive bartending,” the San Francisco Examiner noted. It’s a remarkable story considering that Li had never even tasted a cocktail in his life.

The simple fact is that immigration overall is not only good for our country, it’s necessary to our economic growth and vital to essential industries, such as agriculture, construction, hospitality, and much more. But without the skills and spirit of immigrant workers and entrepreneurs – the end result of restrictionist government policies that will strip these industries of their lifeforce – our nation will be poorer in more ways than just money.