By: Samuel Rocha IV
Tensions rose between protestors and Texas Department of Public Safety troopers outside the South Texas Family Residential Center last Wednesday, where many immigrant families are held, including a 5-year-old boy from Minneapolis
His name is Liam Conejo Ramos and he traveled over 1,000 miles from Minnesota with his father to the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, TX, after being taken by federal agents outside of their home.
They were in custody for 12 days inside STFRC before a Texas judge ordered the government to release them on Saturday, Feb. 1. They had a pending asylum case but no order of deportation directing that they be removed from the United States.
Minnesota has sparked numerous national protests over the last month following the deaths of two U.S. citizens – Renee Nicole Good, a mother of three, on Jan. 7, and intensive care nurse Alex Pretti on Jan. 24 – who were shot and killed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) law enforcement.
Such protests have spread to Texas, and a small population town of roughly 3,000 residents saw a surge of 300 visitors from all across the state to what was once the Watermelon Capital of Texas.
Freedom of Expression Through Prayer
Sr. Martha Ann Kirk and four other Incarnate Word Sisters marched a two-and-a-half-mile route from a park in Dilley to the South Texas Family Residential Center. She and 92-year-old Sr. Josetta Eveler said the protestors were walking too slowly for their liking.
Kirk, 80, states she encourages other UIW staff members to join her on social justice movements, including the release of Ramos from the detention center, yet rarely sees effort from colleagues outside of the Incarnate Word Sisters.
“Institutional administrators are afraid, but we Sisters are free,” Kirk said. “It’s in our DNA as Incarnate Word Sisters to care about children that are suffering…that’s part of our founding story.”
Kirk continued the march, preaching how religion is grounded in compassion and criticized people in power who manipulate others using their faith.
“Using religion in a way that is hurting or not respecting the human dignity of people is an abuse,” Kirk said. “I have done a lot of study of Catholic theology, the biblical tradition is so strong on welcoming strangers in your land because you yourself were a stranger in the land of Egypt.”
“No one is illegal on stolen land” is a similar phrase to Kirk’s comment and was commonly shouted during the protest. Rojas was one of many willing to lose their voice by screaming that chant towards ICE officers.
Rojas is a member of the Kalpulli Ayolopaktzin, an intertribal group that preserves ancient traditions of Mexico. She drove an hour from San Antonio to pray for families inside the detention center and proudly protest against ICE’s actions against immigrants on Wednesday.
“I’m lighting this fire right now representing on behalf of the Kalpulli Ayolopaktzin from the mesa of the Kalpulli Ameyaltonal in Amecameca, Mexico,” Rojas said.
A heavy scent of smoke filled nostrils and turned heads of nearby protestors towards Rojas kneeling into a black bowl of charcoal at the stump of a tree. Rojas says this fire has been passed down for 500 years in a form of resistance and resilience.
It represents the message and inner sacral fuego of the Kalpulli Ayolopaktzin people by burning bocote, exotic wood from Mexico, and tree resin, which she refers to as “tree tears,” inside a popoxcomitl, an ancient Aztec incense holder.
“[It’s] for purifying, cleansing and taking our messages up to Creator or whoever it is you pray to,” Rojas said. “It’s a very healing incense, a very healing resin.”
Rojas hoped the families inside the detention center would smell the incense as she carried her sacred popoxcomitl throughout the entire protest.
“I’m just hoping that it reaches the heart of those on the other side and that they’re able to find liberation and justice,” Rojas said.
Freedom of Expression Through Art
Andre Taylor, 28, works for a Texas-based nonprofit that works to end the use of for-profit prisons and reliance on deportation policies. He had a long way to travel from Houston, but he disagrees and embraces the drive if it means he can be part of a movement to spread peace.
“Long? It wasn’t long for the cause,” Taylor said.
He was hoisting a large cardboard sculpture of an elderly woman who had flowers in her soft blue hair in the streets between a crowd of people, lifting explicit and strong messages condemning ICE’s actions against all people.
“This right here symbolizes peace [and] quality for all,” Taylor said. “No color of skin matters more than the next.”
Taylor was given the sculpture made by Sheila Vasquez, a 42-year-old art teacher and mother from San Antonio. She was marching for the children who had been separated from their families, as she believes it takes away their innocence and opportunity to have a proper childhood.
Vasquez is around children all day, and she says she has to reassure their safety weekly, as they are aware of ICE and the daily headlines that reach their communities. To help ease their anxiety, Vasquez encourages her students to express themselves through art.
She calls her art “Protectors,” and brings them to every protest she attends. The sculpture of an older woman’s head that Taylor was holding is called “Elder” and was first crafted for a protest outside a border expo in San Antonio eight years ago.
“Elders are protective… our ancestors past, present, and future, are with us always,” Vasquez said. “We were just trying to cause disruption and awareness.”
Her newest art piece is a large white bird, a symbol of hope she has for families fighting for their lives against immigration officers.
“I don’t know if any of the children are going to be able to see us, but I thought maybe if I put her high enough the kids could get a glimpse and know that we care,” Vasquez said.
As the march approached the grounds of STFRC, tensions rose to a boil with over 40 Texas Department of Public Safety troopers arriving in riot gear to intimidate the rowdy crowd of protestors. Protesters formed a line just feet from troopers’ shields as the standoff intensified.
Angel Garza was distant from the detention center as he predicted it could get violent. He states the response from law enforcement was unnecessary.
“They just started shooting pepper spray into the crowd to try to make people disperse for no apparent reason,” Garza said.
In a statement, DPS said troopers used those measures after some demonstrators refused to disperse and breached a barrier. Two people were arrested.
Applying the Right Amount of Pressure
Since Wednesday’s protest, Ramos and his father have safely returned to their home three days later on Jan. 31, with the help of Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas.
Castro states the protests are working and voices are being heard to make the change they’re looking for.
ICE and its Border Patrol commander at large were also affected by the massive nationwide protests by demoting Greg Bovino, the face of its operation, after many controversies in Minnesota.
Bovino was a key figure in the immigration crackdown and received flak for defending the agent who shot Pretti by claiming, “the victims are the Border Patrol agents.”
U.S. Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Kristi Noem also received criticism for labeling Pretti a terrorist before an investigation was held.
“Violence against a government because of ideological reasons and for reasons to resist and to perpetuate violence. That is the definition of domestic terrorism,” Noem said at a press conference on Jan. 24.
Investigations have concluded a few weeks later, as a Minnesota county medical examiner has reported that Pretti’s death was ruled a homicide.
