NEW YORK, New York – Caribbean-American Democratic Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke has hosted a virtual emergency briefing for members of the clergy in New York to prepare Caribbean and other churches for possible occupation by agents from the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency.
Yvette D ClarkeThe emergency meeting, dubbed “What Chicago and Minneapolis Taught Us,” also featured elected leaders, advocates, and experts with a record of standing against lawless immigration enforcement and the strategic experience to overcome it.
As the Trump administration’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) readies ICE and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agents to enter New York City and other sanctuary cities nationwide, Clarke, the daughter of Jamaican immigrants, who represents the 9th Congressional District in Brooklyn, New York, told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) that she convened the emergency briefing “to ensure the churches of Brooklyn have the resources and support they need to protect their congregations from the looming threat ahead.
“When even Houses of Worship are not shielded from ICE and CBP’s reign of terror, it is clear there is no limit this president will not go to fulfill his xenophobic ambitions,” said Clarke, who is also chair of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC). “Indeed, the open inhumanity demonstrated by agents of the Trump administration is stunning. But it must not be paralyzing.
“While time still remains before New York City falls into the clutches of Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant hysteria, we must act,” she added. “There is no length I will not go to ensure Brooklyn’s clergy and their congregations are equipped for what is to come.”
During the brief, Illinois Democratic Congresswoman Robin Kelly shared her firsthand account of the occupation of Chicago by US immigration agents and an update on her effort to impeach DHS Secretary Kristi Noem.
“Secretary Kristi Noem has unleashed her rogue agency across the country, but community and faith leaders are rising up against her in defense of our immigrant neighbors and basic human rights,” Kelly said. “Faith calls on us to love and care for our neighbors, to stand against bullies and for justice.
“I’m grateful to Congresswoman Yvette (Clarke) for preparing New Yorkers for ICE’s rampage, and for her support of my impeachment articles against Secretary Noem,” she added. “Her reign of terror must end.”
Amid mounting calls, US Democratic leadership last week called on Noem to step aside and be impeached after federal agents’ fatal shootings in Minneapolis of two American citizens who protested Trump’s deportation policy.
