Charleston, WV- Clergy in West Virginia said members of their congregations are being deported and families are being separated in ICE raids. The faith leaders said often the men being rounded up are solely responsible for their family’s income.
Many gathered this week outside Gov. Patrick Morrisey’s office requesting the state issue a temporary moratorium on the detentions of undocumented immigrants during the holiday season.
Rev. Paul Hudak, a Catholic priest working with Hispanic congregations in Clarksburg and Morgantown, said his parishioners are now regularly being detained and arrested, including a man who worked as a roofer.
“As he came down from his roof at his work site and the city of Morgantown, the story is that ICE officers were waiting for him, as he got down off the roof,” Hudak explained. “Two weeks later, he was deported.”
Hudak added many undocumented residents are now concerned about calling medical emergency services, out of fear it will lead to an encounter with ICE agents. West Virginia is one of 40 states to have entered into 287(g) agreements, which allow local law enforcement to cooperate with ICE.
Hudak noted church leaders are working to mobilize to support families who are affected when one of their family members — often working men — are detained.
“There’s been hundreds of men who have been detained, the vast majority are male, these men who are typically breadwinners, are taken out of their homes,” Hudak recounted. “Usually they have wives, partners, families, therefore the breadwinner is taken from the family.”
While around half of Americans said at least some undocumented immigrants should face deportation, more than 60% said they do not think arrests should take place at places of worship, schools, or hospitals.
