The Brookline Interfaith Clergy Association is condemning ICE operations nationwide, calling on Brookline to stand in solidarity with immigrant communities and demanding action from local officials.
“As faith leaders in Brookline, we stand together at a moment of deep moral urgency,” reads a statement the association posted online . “We are outraged and heartbroken by the violence unfolding in Minneapolis and across the United States — where federal immigration enforcement has resulted in deaths, terrorized communities, and sparked protests in the streets.”
The statement comes amid heightened national tension following the killings last month of Alex Pretti and Renée Good by ICE agents in Minneapolis. Protesters have used their deaths as evidence that Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration has gone too far. According to ICE data, almost 76,000 people were being held in detention centers as of mid-January, nearly double the number when Trump took office a year ago.
Temple Sinai Rabbi Andy Vogel, who helped draft the statement, said this is one of many public stances Brookline faith congregations have taken in the past year against ICE action.
“The crisis is boiling over,” Vogel said, “but the crisis has been simmering for a long time.”
Days before making the post, the Brookline Interfaith Clergy Association joined almost 200 other religious leaders at the statehouse Jan. 23 to urge Governor Maura Healey to protect Massachusetts residents.
The statement echoes demands made at the statehouse, calling for “immediate accountability for these actions, transparency in enforcement, and systemic change to ensure that no one is treated as expendable.”
Beyond appealing to city officials, Mark Caggiano, minister at the First Church in Chestnut Hill, said the other equally important aim of the statement is to offer moral guidance for those sitting at home and feeling overwhelmed by the “avalanche of information” from social media and the news.
“It can be hard if you’re doing that alone,” he said. “I think it’s important to have religious leaders to say, this is not good, this is not consistent with any of the religious values that we spend every week trying to convey to people.”
Citing the moral tenets of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Bahá’í, Hinduism and Buddhism, the statement reaches across faiths with a common belief in the worth of human life, responsibility to protect the vulnerable and a call to peace.
“The theological language that we use is sometimes different from each other. There are certain aspects of each tradition that are different,” Vogel said, “but we have a deep sense of respect for each other.”
It is because of this respect that Vogel said faith leaders are able to agree upon “a central teaching across religions, which is loving your neighbor.”
On Christmas Eve, Caggiano joined a worship service in protest outside the Burlington ICE facility. “There were hundreds of clergy from all different denominations coming together,” he said. “We were trying to sing our way into the building.”
Vogel emphasized the galvanizing effects of taking a stance as an organized community, religious or not. “When you’re with dozens of people, hundreds of people – when we stand up for each other – that’s really powerful.”
His role as a faith leader, he said, is “finding hope in a world where there’s a lot of pain and a lot of human created suffering.”
“People come to their clergy members to find hope,” Vogel said. “It’s easy to feel powerless.”
“I’m really grateful to all of the people in Brookline of all different faiths and of no faith, who are all speaking up,” Vogel said. “This is a time for everyone to do what they can to resist authoritarianism and resist the destruction of people’s lives.”
This story is part of a partnership between Brookline.News and the Boston University Department of Journalism.