‘We come with flowers’: Faith leaders host prayer vigil for family unity at the Federal Building

An estimated 200 to 300 people attended an interfaith prayer vigil on Wednesday, June 19, to speak up for family unity in the face of the continuing immigration enforcement  raids across Los Angeles. 

Organized by LA Voice, PICO California, and several religious organizations, the event included speeches by faith leaders, prayers, singing and a procession to the Federal Building where attendees laid flowers on the steps. About a dozen Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents came out and stood behind the faith leaders as they spoke, until the procession peacefully left the Federal Building around 7:35 p.m., singing a chorus of “This Little Light of Mine”. 

Attendees gathered beginning at 6 p.m. at Placita Olvera, where people handed out flowers. The event opened with a land acknowledgement which described how the original Tongva people of Los Angeles were migrants themselves. “They have shown us that migration is beautiful and necessary for survival,” the speaker said. 

Before the procession, multiple faith leaders gave speeches and led prayers.

The Rev. Tanya Lopez, senior pastor of Downey Memorial Christian Church, said, “Our people are being targeted, racially profiled, indiscriminately and forcefully taken off the streets of our neighborhoods.” Last week, Rev. Lopez confronted federal agents as they took a man from her church parking lot. 

“We may come from different religions, but today I see one human family, united in one spirit, raising our voices … to proclaim that all families are sacred, that all people are worthy of dignity,” she said. 

The event was attended by a broad range of people from different faiths, races, ages and neighborhoods across Los Angeles. 

Mercedes Castro attended the event with her two children, ages six and 14. She said she decided to attend the event for her two children, whose friends had been impacted by the raids. Another man walked in the procession with his baby in a stroller. 

While most attendees held flowers, a few people held signs saying “Families Are Sacred” and “Keep Families Together.”

Upon arriving at the Federal Building, faith leaders ascended the steps, where initially there were no presence of National Guard soldiers or federal agents. “The situation last Tuesday looked a bit different,” said Father Brendan Busse S.J., pastor of Dolores Mission Church, explaining that they had hosted a prayer vigil last week where the National Guard was present. 

As faith leaders asked attendees to come forward to lay their flowers on the steps of the Federal Building in silence, an agent appeared and said “We appreciate what you’re all doing here, but we kindly ask you all to step off federal property.”

One attendee in the crowd replied: “This is public property — paid for by our tax dollars.”

The faith leaders proceeded with speeches, prayers and songs on the steps of the building. Approximately a dozen Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents came out to stand behind them throughout. Multiple more agents remained in the building, stationed just behind the doors.

Fr. Busse later said to the crowd: “If they really appreciate what we’re doing, it is only because they know what we know: That this is not an invasion. This is a family gathering.”

“As we stand in front of this building, these courts, these prison cells behind us, we know that the men and women who are inside this building tonight are part of our sacred family,” he said. 

In between speeches, attendees would occasionally break into chants of “¡Sí se puede!” or “Say it loud, say it clear, immigrants are welcome here!”

One faith leader shared the story of the ninth teacher of the Sikh tradition. She explained how he is celebrated all over the world as the “shield of humanity” for standing up for those being terrorized by imperial armies.  

“In every turn through the cycles of human history, people have faced the fires of oppression,” she said passionately. “The question is not: What will you do? The question is: Who will you be in the story?”

She then turned to the agents standing behind her and said: “And so to you – our brothers, soldiers, agents, officers –  who do you want to be at this moment in history? How will the child in your life remember you? You did not take this job to go to war with your own people.”

She went on to explain how the Sikh’s son later received his father’s head on a bed of flowers. “We come with flowers,” she said. “And we will keep coming with flowers as long as our loved ones are held in cages.” The crowd then joined her in chanting “We come with flowers!” 

She ended with: “As long as you are here, and as long as they are here, we will come here with flowers.”