Church, Labor Honor Victims of ICE in Chicago

For more than two decades, America’s labor unions and the Church have collaborated to promote justice for immigrant workers. This work has become more urgent in the past year, as ICE has scaled up its efforts at mass deportations – a process that has too often ended in the death of our immigrant brothers and sisters, and sometimes even of observers. That’s why a group in Chicago has come together to uphold the memory of those who have died in the current immigration crackdown.

The idea was conceived when Dominican Priest Fr. Brendan Curran –co-founder of Priests for Justice for Immigrants – reached out to Chicago Federation of Labor Secretary-Treasurer (and CLN Board member) Don Villar. The Chicago Chapter of the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA) picked up the ball and Chicago-area trade unions ran with it. The Carpenters crafted over 120 beautiful wooden crosses, which they conveyed to the Painters, who lovingly inscribed the name of an ICE victim on each one. In late September they were shared with the public in a press conference at Holy Name Cathedral; the Laborers have volunteered to transport the crosses to parishes and schools around Chicagoland between now and Lent.

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