A Morristown vigil called “Standing Up to Hate” is scheduled for Monday, Aug. 14, 2017, to show solidarity with Charlottesville, VA, after its deadly weekend clashes with white supremacists.
The vigil starts at 7 pm on the Morristown Green.
Demonstrations also are planned all week outside Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen’s (R-11th Dist.) Morristown office to protest the “deportation budget” that will come before the House Appropriations Committee, which Frelinghuysen chairs.
“Advocates are coming from throughout the northeast. We expect huge crowds, busloads of people” coming all week, said Karol Ruiz of the Wind of the Spirit Immigration Resource Center, which is coordinating these events with Make the Road New Jersey, and NJ 11th for Change, among other organizations.
Nightly vigils are planned through Thursday outside Frelinghuysen’s office at 30 Schuyler Place.
Make the Road New Jersey sums up its concerns this way:
Immigrant families are under attack. Here in New Jersey, deportations are up 30 percent since Trump took office. And things will only get worse if Congress approves the 2018 budget that sets aside $4.5 billion to detain and deport even more immigrants, hire thousands of additional ICE agents, make tens of thousands of new beds in private detention facilities, and build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico.
“The government should be investing in education, health care, and in better infrastructure, not breaking up families,” Daniela Mena of Wind of the Spirit said in a statement.
“Our families are fleeing violence from repressive governments and violent groups, only to find no help from our neighbors up north. We are met here with disdain, in spite that immigrant communities have always made valuable contributions.”
Events planned this week outside Frelinghuysen’s office include:
- Monday, Aug. 14: 11 am Kickoff Rally with Wind of the Spirit and other immigrant rights organizations.
- Tuesday, Aug. 15: 4pm: DACA anniversary action, “Save DACA,” #Not1Dollar for Deportation.
- Thursday, Aug. 17th: 11 am: “Building the People’s Budget” Report Release.
- Friday Aug. 18: 11 am: Rally with Wind of the Spirit, Make the Road NJ, and local organizations.
Candlelight prayers, songs and a Jericho walk are planned for Monday’s vigil on the Green.
It’s meant to be “in solidarity with the survivors of Charlottesville’s white supremacist terrorist attack, in mourning of the Charlottesville victims, and in action for a future where all people are safe,” according to a flyer from organizers.
A 32-year-old woman was killed in Charlottesville when a man drove his car into a crowd of people.
Dozens were injured in the crash, and in brawls between counter-demonstrators and neo-Nazis, Ku Klux Klan members and other white supremacists who came to the University of Virginia town to protest the possible removal of a Robert E. Lee statue.
Two Virginia State Police officers also died when their helicopter crashed.
