Philadelphia faith leaders meet to pray, sing, call for compassion for immigrants amid crackdown

From Rome to Philadelphia, religious leaders are raising their voices against the Trump administration's immigration policies, saying that what's happening does not reflect a core teaching shared across faiths: Love thy neighbor.

In Philadelphia, that message is being delivered not through politics, but through prayer.

Each week, clergy and faith leaders gather outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Center City for a peaceful interfaith vigil. Now in the 11th week of a planned 40-week series, the gathering brings together people of different traditions, united by scripture, song, and a call for compassion.

"Jesus didn't say, 'When you welcomed me, you welcomed the citizen.' He said, 'When you welcomed me, you welcomed the stranger,'" said Rev. Adan Mairena of West Kensington Ministry. 

Dozens stood shoulder to shoulder, some reading scripture and others singing hymns like "We Shall Overcome" and offering prayers for those detained.

"We pray first for all who have been detained," Pastor Rebecca Kirkpatrick of Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church said during the vigil. "For those who are frightened, exhausted, sick or alone and for those who do not know what comes next."

For Rev. Peter Martin of First Presbyterian Church at Norristown, the vigil is deeply personal. Wearing a Minnesota Vikings cap, he pointed to recent violence connected to ICE activity in the state.

"I'm from Minnesota. The violence that ICE brings into neighborhoods has claimed two lives in an area that's precious to me," Martin said. "But of course, I minister in Norristown, large immigrant population."

Faith leaders say the recent shooting deaths of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minneapolis have further intensified concerns about the impact of immigration enforcement on immigrant communities.

"Every week we get calls from families who've had a loved one disappear by ICE," said Peter Pedemonti, co-director of the New Sanctuary Movement of Philadelphia. "Taken out of their neighborhood in Philadelphia, traumatizing and terrorizing their family."

As Philadelphia City Council considers the so-called "ICE Out" legislation, faith leaders stress that their presence outside the detention center is not about partisan politics but moral responsibility.

Kirkpatrick said the church's role is "standing up as kind of a moral and ethical witness to civil authority, to the government."

In the City of Brotherly Love, organizers say they plan to keep showing up, week after week, grounded in faith, prayer, and action. 

As the singing echoed through Center City once more, their message was simple: compassion, they believe, is not optional.