Dozens of members of Utah’s Jewish community gather at ICE office, with this message: ‘Close the Camps’
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Betsy Smith joins Utah Jewish Community organizations, their members and friends gathered outside of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field office at 2975 S. Decker Lake Drive, West Valley City, on Saturday, Aug. 10, 2019, for a "Close the Camps" vigil.
Hefting signs, giving prayers and reciting poems, about 100 volunteers from Utah Jewish community groups gathered for a vigil outside Utah’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office Saturday, with one message: “Close the camps.”
“It was illuminating to be there,” said Eileen Hallet Stone, Utah section president of the National Council of Jewish Women, one of the groups organizing the protest in West Valley City. “People got out of their on lives for a moment to think about the lives of others, to think about how they would feel to be taken out of their homes.”
Stone was on a list of speakers — including Reps. Patrice Arent, D-Millcreek, and Angela Romero, D-Salt Lake City — calling on Congress and the Trump administration to close ICE-operated camps along the U.S.-Mexico border where thousands of immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers are being detained.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Stan Holms joins Utah Jewish Community organizations, their members and friends gather outside of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field office at 2975 S. Decker Lake Drive in West Valley City, on Saturday, Aug. 10, 2019, for a Close The Camps vigil and to condemn government policies that endanger, imprison and deport immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Betsy Smith, joins Utah Jewish Community organizations, their members and friends gathered outside of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field office at 2975 S. Decker Lake Drive, West Valley City, on Saturday, Aug. 10, 2019, for a Close The Camps vigil.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Eric Goldman, founder of Utah Jews for Refugees leads a Close The Camps vigil outside of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field office at 2975 S. Decker Lake Drive, West Valley City, on Saturday, Aug. 10, 2019. "Because we have experienced the same type of persecution as a Jewish community we take to heart what immigrants are facing."
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Kathleen Koprowski shows her support for the immigrant community as she joins a rally organized by Utah Jewish Community organizations gathered outside of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field office at 2975 S. Decker Lake Drive, West Valley City, on Saturday, Aug. 10, 2019, for a Close The Camps vigil.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Maria Montes, Community Engagement and Advocacy Coordinator for Communidades Unidas brings attention to the children who have died in detention centers at the border as she joins the voices gathered outside of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field office at 2975 S. Decker Lake Drive, West Valley City, on Saturday, Aug. 10, 2019, for a Close The Camps vigil.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Claire Stradling, 7, joins her family along with Utah Jewish Community organizations, their members and friends as they gather outside of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field office at 2975 S. Decker Lake Drive, West Valley City, on Saturday, Aug. 10, 2019, for a Close The Camps vigil.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah State Representative Patrice Arent, D-Millcreek, Co-President of the National Association of Jewish Legislators, speaks to those gathered outside of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field office at 2975 S. Decker Lake Drive, West Valley City, on Saturday, Aug. 10, 2019, for a Close The Camps vigil.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Jewish community member Benjamin Luks-Morgan blows on a ram horn known as the shofar as a way to "blast into our consciousness the possibility of redemption, of an end to the dehumanizing and targeting of immigrants, of a world in which all people find sanctuary, safety and home." Utah Jewish Community organizations, their members and friends gathered outside of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field office at 2975 S. Decker Lake Drive, West Valley City, on Saturday, Aug. 10, 2019, for a Close The Camps vigil.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah Jewish Community organizations, their members and friends gather outside of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field office at 2975 S. Decker Lake Drive in West Valley City, on Saturday, Aug. 10, 2019, for a Close The Camps vigil and to condemn government policies that endanger, imprison and deport immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah Jewish Community organizations, their members and friends gather outside of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field office at 2975 S. Decker Lake Drive in West Valley City, on Saturday, Aug. 10, 2019, for a Close The Camps vigil.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah Jewish Community organizations, their members and friends gather outside of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field office at 2975 S. Decker Lake Drive in West Valley City, on Saturday, Aug. 10, 2019, for a Close The Camps vigil and to condemn government policies that endanger, imprison and deport immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah Jewish Community organizations, their members and friends gather outside of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field office at 2975 S. Decker Lake Drive in West Valley City, on Saturday, Aug. 10, 2019, for a Close The Camps vigil and to condemn government policies that endanger, imprison and deport immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers.
Benjamin Luks-Morgan blew the shofar, the ram’s horn traditionally used in Jewish rituals, to "blast into our consciousness the possibility of redemption, of an end to the dehumanizing and targeting of immigrants, of a world in which all people find sanctuary, safety and home."
Amid the speeches, some speakers read poems. Alyshia Klein, president of Utah Hadassah, read Emma Lazarus’ “The New Colossus,” the poem printed on a bronze plaque in the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty — the one that includes “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”
Stone, a former freelance history columnist for The Salt Lake Tribune, read a more recent poem, “Home,” which begins, “no one leaves home unless home is the mouth of a shark.” “Home,” written by the British-Somali poet Warsan Shire, has become a rallying cry for refugees.
The vigil lasted an hour, Stone said, and there were no counterprotesters visible.
The West Valley City protest was one of more than 50 organized across the country this weekend by Jewish organizations, meant to focus on the treatment of immigrants. The vigils are timed to the Jewish holiday of Tisha B’Av, which commemorates the destruction of the ancient Jewish temples in Jerusalem by the Babylonians and the Romans.
“It’s a day of mourning,” Stone said. “As Jews, we are always taught to welcome the strangers, because we were strangers.”
Tribune photographer Francisco Kjolseth contributed to this report.