By LEONEDA
INGE, WUNC
Faith
leaders, immigrants and their neighbors gathered today in Raleigh to recognize
World Refugee Day.
The
day began at Open Table United Methodist Church for prayer. Jennie Belle, a
community organizer with Church World Service, said the group is using the day
to speak out against current federal immigration policies.
“Different
faiths and clergy, to raise up a prophetic voice to say that the policies right
now that our administration is implementing around separating families and not
allowing refugees in this country are immoral,” Belle said.
The
news in recent days has been dominated by searing images of children held in
cages at border facilities, as well as audio recordings of young children
crying for their parents — images that have sparked fury, question of morality
and concern from Republicans about a negative impact on their races in
November's midterm elections.
President
Donald Trump said he would be signing an executive order later Wednesday that
would end the process of separating children from families after they are
detained crossing the U.S. border illegally. The effort would mark a dramatic
turnaround for an administration that has been insisting, wrongly, that it has
no choice but to separate families apprehended at the border because of the law
and a court decision.
Ben
Murphy of Durham brought his two-year-old son to the rally in Raleigh. Murphy
got emotional thinking about children being separated from their families at
the Mexico – U.S. border.
“And
we feel pretty powerless to do anything and so this is something that will be a
small gesture, not really a sacrifice but a way to show support for what’s
happen there,” Murphy said.
The
World Refugee Day event in Raleigh also recognized the “North Carolina
Sanctuary Six,” the six undocumented immigrants living in area churches to
avoid deportation.
The
Associated Press contributed to this report.