Trudy Taylor Smith, Esq.
CDF Senior Administrator of Policy and Advocacy
At Children’s Defense Fund-Texas, we work alongside advocates, faith leaders, and community members to protect children and families from harmful policies and systems. Our team also helps lead the National Coalition to End Family and Child Detention, a nationwide network working to end detention of children and families in immigration custody.
Earlier this week, I joined a powerful act of witness and solidarity led by a Texas faith leader whose commitment to immigrant families has inspired communities across the region. Pastor Dianne Garcia led a days-long 90-mile peace walk in support of the immigrant community, seeking justice and freedom for every child and family who has been imprisoned, and for communities whose lives have been upended by ICE raids, kidnappings, detentions, deportations, and enforced disappearances. Eighteen members of her congregation, including four children, have been detained by ICE.
Over four days, Pastor Dianne walked from the small town of Dilley, Texas, home to the infamous detention facility where ICE has imprisoned hundreds of families since President Trump took office last January, to an immigration courthouse in San Antonio where ICE has arrested individuals and families who are following the legal process to apply for asylum or obtain lawful status through other immigration pathways.
I had the honor of joining Pastor Dianne for the final nine miles of her journey.
We began at a migrant memorial site on the southwest side of San Antonio that marks the place where, in 2022, 53 people, including children, died in sweltering Texas heat after smugglers abandoned them in the back of an 18-wheeler without air conditioning or proper circulation. Indigenous elders representing communities that have survived generations of genocide, forced removals, and incarceration led the procession as we walked.
Our group included local organizers, community members, Japanese American descendants of survivors of U.S. concentration camps during World War II, Catholic nuns, families with young children, and faith leaders and advocates from across the country. Our numbers grew as more marchers joined along the way.
“All of the children are always ours,” we sang, echoing words James Baldwin wrote in 1980.
“Kids do not belong in cages,” we chanted together, naming this truth in rebuke of a cruel immigration detention system that has turned a profit for private corporations while detaining more than 3,800 children since Inauguration Day last year.
We walked, each step a prayer planted on the land with our feet.
We held silence to reflect on the suffering of families separated by ICE’s state-sponsored violence and families inside the prison camp at Dilley, where children and parents are denied adequate food, clean drinking water, medical care, and access to legal information or representation.
We sang words of love and encouragement directed to detained families and children: “Te vemos! ¡Te Queremos! ¡Luchamos por ti!”
We see you. We love you. We are fighting for you.
As we walked, people along the route came outside to show support. Families gathered in front yards to record the procession; women stepped out of a salon to wave; children called down from apartment windows; and passing drivers honked their horns and raised fists in solidarity.
We sang to neighbors gathered in front of businesses, grocery stores, houses, and job sites, “No están solos, no están solas, juntos hacemos la liberación.”
You are not alone. Together, we will bring about liberation.
Connection with one another and the larger pueblo was palpable.
Our march was an action, a spiritual practice, a grief ritual, a block party, and a walking love letter to our communities all at once.
Community members sustained everyone marching with cold water, hot dogs, and tacos along the roadside throughout the day. At one stop, a little girl with serious eyes pressed granola bars and fruit into our hands. At another, a priest came into the street with a gentle blue-eyed husky dog to offer a blessing and lead us in the Lord’s Prayer.
Lu Aya led us in song, calling on our ancestors for strength and reminding us of the cause of freedom that brought us to the streets:
We’ve got ancestors at our backs
We’ve got generations forward
We’ve got land and spirit in our bones
Never again para nadie
Never again, free families
When we arrived at the courthouse downtown, an Indigenous elder led another prayer. We gathered to hear stories and reflections from faith leaders, advocates, and a local high school student who spoke with conviction and moral clarity. Finally, Pastor Dianne shared closing words, encouraging us to hold onto hope of liberation for everyone and to keep walking toward that future together, step by step.
As I shared with the crowd during the rally, Congress could end the cruel policy of family detention at any time by passing legislation to outlaw it. Dilley is not the only place ICE detains families, and plans are already underway to dramatically expandimmigration detention across the country, including repurposing warehouses to imprison growing numbers of people, including families and children in inhumane conditions.
As Congress contemplates whether to provide ICE with even more funding, now is the time for us all to be relentless in calling our members of Congress to demand that they: end family detention, cut funding for ICE to continue detaining families and terrorizing communities, and conduct oversight visits to ensure the health and safety of everyone currently detained in ICE custody
Singing, marching, and dancing together are powerful, ancient practices that reconnect us to our bodies, to each other, and to our power.
They are time-tested psychological and spiritual tools for shaking off despair, fear, overwhelm, and paralysis. Participating in this march was deeply moving and filled me with joy, gratitude, and belonging, even as we continue to live through a very dark moment.
In my own experience, taking action alongside others to care for our community is one of the most energizing and powerful things we can do in uncertain and violent times like these.
Take Action to Help Free Families
If you would like to join the movement to free families, consider taking action and sharing these resources with others in your community:
- Use this online action tool to tell your members of Congress: free families now.
- Use this advocacy toolkit to join the National Coalition to End Family and Child Detention’s “Paper Dolls to Free Families” campaign.
- Learn more about coalition efforts and download a toolkit for planning your own #FreeFamilies event at FreeFamilies.net.
- Use this resource from the National Immigration Law Center to learn about your rights during encounters with ICE and share it in your community.
- Use this FAQ document to learn more about family detention and help inform conversations with others.
- Donate to or volunteer with trusted advocacy organizations, service providers, or mutual aid networks supporting immigrant families.
At Children’s Defense Fund-Texas, we remain committed to working with partners across the country to end family detention and ensure every child grows up safe, supported, and free and with dignity, hope, and joy.