Jul 16, 2019 - Politics & Policy

Religion is fueling a new wave of immigration activism

Orion Rummler

This image shows someone holding a sign that reads "ICE OUT" in a crowd. — Protestors on July 16, 2018. Photo: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images

Never Again Action, a Jewish activist organization formed last month, led a protest of hundreds on Tuesday that closed ICE's headquarters in Washington, D.C., for several hours, NBC reports.

Why it matters: Religion is fueling a new wave of immigration activism. Clergy members rallied for immigrants from their pulpits over the weekend, offering sanctuary as ICE carried out a small number of raids on undocumented migrant families. Never Again Action, which has organized over 1,000 protestors at more than 10 events this summer, is led by mostly young Jews.

The big picture: Democratic presidential candidates including Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren believe ICE should be restructured or its duties redistributed. 2020 hopeful Kirsten Gillibrand said the U.S. should "get rid of" ICE and "start over."

The bottom line: Unprecedented numbers of migrants are coming into a broken U.S. immigration system that is often failing to provide proper care for those in its custody.

Go deeper: Churches offer sanctuary and support to immigrants over ICE raids

Add Axios on Google

Religion is fueling a new wave of immigration activism

What to read next