Jeremy Shaver stood outside with a candle on February 16, spending the evening with 50 members of the faith community just blocks from Aurora's immigrant detention facility. His sign encouraged prayer for immigrants and US immigration reform.Shaver works for The Interfaith Alliance of Colorado as Director of Outreach. He also is on staff at Park Hill Congregational UCC in Denver, CO.
He says, “All faith traditions share a common mandate to welcome and care for all members of our community and love our neighbors as ourselves. As people of faith, we must keep that in the forefront of our minds as we approach the complex issue of immigration.”
The immigrant detention facility is privately-owned by a corporation, GEO Corporation of Florida, that wishes to expand the number of detainees and has Aurora's tacit approval to do so.
The group organizing the vigil, the American Friends Service Committee, is concerned about human rights abuses in detention facilities, as well as the destructive nature of a society that deals with international policy issues by locking up the poor and marginalized.
