‘Not what our faith teaches’: Nashville faith groups host vigil outside Homeland Security office

Dozens gathered for a vigil held by Middle Tennessee clergy to recognize those killed in encounters with immigration agents, including Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. (Photo: John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout)

Several dozen people bundled in colorful coats, hats and scarves crowded the street in front of the Department of Homeland Security field office in Nashville on Friday to pray.

Ice from a devastating winter storm still clung to the branches of nearby trees and snow flurries blew through the air as nearly 30 clergy members led the crowd in a vigil honoring nine people whose deaths have been connected to immigration law enforcement this year.

Included are Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good, both of whom were shot and killed by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis this month. At least six immigrants have died while in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody since Jan. 1, and a seventh person was fatally shot by an off-duty ICE agent in Los Angeles on New Year’s Eve.

“We are here because what is happening in Minneapolis is not isolated,” Rev. Alisha Haddock, chairperson of Nashville Organized for Action and Hope’s Transformational Justice Taskforce, said. “What we are witnessing across this country is a dangerous rise of fear-driven policies. It is a rise of white supremacy and nationalism cloaked in distorted Christianity and hollow and faux patriotism. And we are here today to say very, very clearly that this is not who we are and this is not what our faith teaches.”

Friday’s vigil also follows a week of hardship for Nashvillians, more than 71,000 of whom were still without electricity when the vigil began at noon.

Rev. Laura Kigweba, executive director of the Southern Christian Coalition, also prayed for Nashvillians who are suffering and those who are reaching out to help their neighbors.

“Now that the roads have cleared, let us not turn away when the headlines fade,” she said. “Remember the cold that settled over our streets … how it was met with the fierce love of people offering warm meals, opening our homes, giving rides, standing in the gap. We see our neighbors, even now, made not by proximity, but by compassion.”

Rev. Yuri Rodriguez of St. Augustine’s Episcopal Chapel read the names of each of the nine people who died:

Alex Pretti. Renee Good. Keith Porter. Heber Sanchez Dominguez. Victor Manuel Diaz. Parady La. Luis Beltran Yanez-Cruz. Luis Gustavo Nunez Caceres. Geraldo Lunas Campos.

The crowd answered each one, clouds of breath visible in the bitter cold, “We remember you. Your life mattered.”

Rev. Ingrid McIntyre recently returned to Nashville from Minneapolis.

“I pray for folks in Minneapolis who have been living a really hard reality, day after day,” she said. “For weeks, I saw weary souls, but souls that keep on loving each other, taking care of each other, and really pulling each other through.”

Kaki and Bill Friskics-Warren stood with arms around one another through the vigil. 

“We come out because we understand that our liberation is tied together, and that there’s no way for us to experience freedom if everyone is not experiencing their freedom,” Kaki Friskics-Warren said.

Rev. Zach Sasser of the Downtown Presbyterian Church stood alongside more than two dozen other clergy members, wearing a colorful stole over his winter gear. 

Sasser said there’s a “moral imperative” for faith leaders to show up for their communities like this.

“The way in which the current administration is going about immigration is steeped in fear and absolutely lacking compassion,” he said. “And if we as faith leaders are to encourage a type of society that is steeped in compassion, then the first place to look is the most vulnerable person.”