Four Fools Mission regulars joined the San Mateo County Coalition for Immigrant Rights on Friday morning, February 21, 2014 at the office of Supervisors Warren Slocum and Dave Pine. We advocated for an end to “ICE holds.” Great gobs of gratitude go out to fools David Vallerga, Silvia Ramirez, and Gene Thiers for showing up for immigrant justice and speaking the truth. Our multicultural ministry of witness, accompaniment, and advocacy calls us to meetings like this because of our direct experience of the plight of our neighbors in the immigrant community here on the San Francisco Peninsula.

When undocumented people are detained by local enforcement for any reason—including traffic violations and misdemeanors—a common practice is to hold them in custody and wait for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to arrive. The deportations that typically follow are tearing families apart, and Fools Mission knows many of our neighbors who have been victimized. Neighboring counties have created policies to end the practice, and we also want freedom from a climate of fear here in San Mateo County. We want everyone who cooks our food, cares for our children, manages our homes and gardens, and makes our economy possible to feel safe working together with law enforcement to protect our communities!

Fools Mission looks forward to working with Supervisors Slocum and Pine to create humane policies that treat all of our neighbors with dignity and respect.

Fools Mission joins the San Mateo County Coalition for Immigrant Rights to advocate for an end to ICE holds." width="3264" height="2448" class="size-full wp-image-223" /> From left to right: Connie Spearing, Dean Santos, Thomas Atwood, Caryl Hughan, Gurjeet Chahal, Helen Beasley, Emily Borg. Braulio Gonzalez, Lucia Lin, Charisse Domingo