Below are remarks from Rev Wendy von Zirpolo at a press conference Monday November 7th about the anti-immigrant Secure Community program of ICE:

I’m Rev. Wendy von Zirpolo, minister at the UU Church of Marblehead and engaged with the Standing on the Side of Love Campaign and UU Mass Action. The Standing on the Side of Love campaign is our Unitarian Universalist activism and outreach program that addresses issues of oppression all over the country and world. UUMass Action mobilizes Unitarian Universalists in Massachusetts around issues of justice like immigration and hunger and poverty.

I also lost niece to a drunk driver in the year 2000, on the day she was engaged. She was 24. My heart is still broken from the violence of that incident. To the family of Matthew Denice my heart travels with you. I know that your pain will not end. But I also know the violence we condone and create through Secure Communities is not the answer. This is not simply about Milford or even Massachusetts. There is a storm brewing in our country, fueled by fear and delivering hate. The storm takes incidents such as these, entwines them with the collective challenges of our economy and seeks to separate us. It scapegoats and criminalizes entire communities and identity groups. It calls it patriotism and promises safety. It is a lie.

The truth about Secure Communities and hate-based legislation in Arizona, Alabama, Georgia and other places is that they create violence. Violence against entire families who are ripped apart, at times one parent delivered across the border in one town, another miles away and a child dropped in yet another town. A child. The violence we create on both sides of the border is seen in horrific abuses of men, women and children, in our name and with our dollars. I’ve been to Arizona, met the people, heard the stories. But the violence does not stop there, it begins here with the profiling.

Just two months ago, Mario, his wife and child in a stroller, were walking on Water Street. They was verbally assaulted by youth in a passing vehicle. A few blocks later, on School Street, another vehicle drove by and a water bottle was hurled at the family. Hurled at a child in a stroller.

Miguel was stopped in Milford by police, who took his out of state driver’s license. When he went back to the station to get his license they said it was lost. Late, police admitted this was not legal and encouraged others to report such incidents, to them.

In another incident, a Guatemalan man was working on a roofing site with Americans and other Hispanics, when a police officer stopped his cruiser, and started to insult them, saying “Go home to your countries!” The Americans went down to talk to the police officer and asked why he was doing that. He left. The Latinos were surprised and confused to be to be insulted by a policeman while working at a job that improves the community.

Another latino shared “My neighbors were never very nice with us, But ever since the accident, they have been throwing garbage and boxes onto our patio, on top of our cars, and inside our deck. They encouraged their dogs to bark at us when we were passing by, and for a few days they left their angry dog with our first floor neighbor tied to our deck, intimidating us every time we had to go in or out of our house. Even their children yelled at my wife and friends to ‘Get out of here!’ ’Go inside!’
These are the more polite stories. There are so many more. We are called to see this storm of hate-based legislation and programming for what it is. The so-called Secure Communities program is anything but secure. It harkens back to a time when Sundown Communities practiced racism openly and proudly. That isn’t who we claim to be. Even in the presence of sadness and grief, we are so much better. So much smarter. With courage and compassion, everyone, please say ‘no’ to Secure Communities.