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  Scary AustinMaryAustinBooks

  Jul 16, 2026, 2:47 AM

  And there's a reason for that: the protest was organized by a new statewide interfaith clergy group which formed in response to this crisis. Unitarian, Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Jewish, and Muslim clergy spoke, and others were also present.

  We did a lot of singing, including a piece written by the Peace Poets for the children at the Dilley ICE concentration camp in Texas, which is now being sung nationwide outside these horrible places.

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  Scary AustinMaryAustinBooks

  Jul 16, 2026, 2:51 AM

  Ms Rachel has been asking people to send in their videos of themselves singing it. The lyrics are:

  "I sing from here, and you sing from there
  Together we'll sing down the walls everywhere
  The love in our hearts like the waves of the sea
  Together we'll sing until everyone's free"

  So we sang that song and various others in English and Spanish as loudly as we could so the detainees would hear us. There are some windows where we try to make noise because we know the sound gets through.

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  Scary AustinMaryAustinBooks

  Jul 16, 2026, 2:53 AM

  ICE hates this simple human gesture of connection, so they often remove people from those cells before we protest. But at least briefly tonight, we did see outlines of people in one of the rooms. We waved our arms at them and chanted "No estan solos!" over and over.

  We heard from two people directly affected by this evil, one woman speaking tearfully of her cousin who was just detained in there. Then a Cuban man spoke to us through a translator about the agonizing nine months he spent...

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  Scary AustinMaryAustinBooks

  Jul 16, 2026, 2:55 AM

  ...in that place, being treated "like an animal," being denied adequate food or any healthcare. He said they eat protein there only once every 15 days. He'd only been released recently, and with a monitor, so it was incredibly brave of him to return to speak to us. He said he was doing it for every person inside.

  Then various faith leaders cited scripture from their different sacred texts to denounce the evil of this place. Every major world religion calls for mercy for the poor, for...

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  Scary AustinMaryAustinBooks

  Jul 16, 2026, 2:58 AM

  ...the immigrant, for those who are most marginalized. A Muslim leader spoke of Mohammed having to be a refugee when he fled from Mecca to Medina for preaching Islam, just as we Christians must remember that the Holy Family were also refugees. We sang a lot more songs for the detainees and then had a "prayers of the people" session, as we do in church services, where people could get up and voice specific concerns for all those gathered to pray for. A woman with a rainbow backpack...

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  Scary AustinMaryAustinBooks

  Jul 16, 2026, 3:00 AM

  ....got up and spoke about the particular horrors being visited on LGBT detainees in this facility, and another woman brought up a specific medical issue in this facility which is not being appropriately dealt with. One person thanked the faith leaders for coming and asked them to please come back with their whole congregations. At the end, a rabbi sang a prayer for healing for everyone inside that place, for us, and for the whole nation.

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  Scary AustinMaryAustinBooks

  Jul 16, 2026, 3:02 AM

  Then we had some announcements about upcoming protests, and I once again saw that sweet 78 year Vietnam veteran I spoke to last week. He said he was an atheist but was happy to be at a religious service in solidarity with the people inside. Referring to another time that faith leaders were trying to provide ministry from outside the building (because they aren't allowed in), he said "That's the one time I've had a cross of ashes on my forehead."

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  Scary AustinMaryAustinBooks

  Jul 16, 2026, 3:07 AM

  At one point a bus drove past us, and it turned out to be an ICE vehicle taking three new kidnapping victims to the concentration camp. We all yelled "SHAME!" over and over at the people doing this.

  One of the ways to oppose this regime is to make the ICE agents feel the weight of the public's scorn for their cruel and shameful actions. Protests achieve this. We know, because we hear from the detainees that ICE retaliates against them every time we protest. Despite this, of course...

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  Scary AustinMaryAustinBooks

  Jul 16, 2026, 3:09 AM

  ...the detainees still want us out there fighting for them, because there's no other way things will get better. It says a lot that some of them even return very bravely after being released, so they can tell their stories of the shameful things that go on inside.

  Right now there are protests all over the US for the people who've been murdered this week. You don't see it in our cowardly press, but people are out there and people are angry. I've been seeing the marches on other platforms.

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  Scary AustinMaryAustinBooks

  Jul 16, 2026, 3:12 AM

  Y'all, Peter Thiel looked at all the surveillance info from Palantir and upped sticks to Argentina. As I was joking with the Vietnam veteran this evening, MAGA at this point stands for "Make Assholes Go to Argentina." The US resistance is winning, and every protest brings hope to the most abused people. I hear it from them. I see it on their faces as they honk and wave to us at protests, or drive past waving a flag or blasting "Fuck Donald Trump" from their cars. (This is a popular approach...

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  Scary AustinMaryAustinBooks

  Jul 16, 2026, 3:13 AM

  ...for people who can't protest on foot.)

  It is ALWAYS worth it to turn out, both to lift the spirits of those who are most targeted, and to force the regime to see that the people are against this evil. We make them backtrack all the time, and if we keep fighting we will defeat them. It will happen faster if more people turn out.

  Onward.

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