Reclaiming Freedom at the Gates of ICE
On this July 4th, as fireworks light our skies, our leaders slash healthcare and school lunches. At the same time, they funnel more than $170 billion into ICE—the nation’s largest law enforcement agency. This “Big Ugly Bill” directs $45 billion toward new detention centers, including funding for the notorious Everglades migrant jail. Another $30 billion goes to ramp up deportations. All of it comes at a cost: to people needing medical care, to children relying on public schools, to communities desperate for affordable housing, and to a planet gasping for clean air.
This isn’t the first time America has built an inhumane immigration regime. And it’s not the first time we’ve been called to resist. In the early 1980s, over 500 faith communities responded to that call. They drew on the traditions of the Underground Railroad and the ancient cities of refuge. Churches, synagogues, and other houses of worship declared sanctuary for Central American refugees fleeing civil war, genocide, and U.S.-backed death squads in places like El Salvador. They opened their doors—and their hearts—so entire families could live free.
That legacy continues today.
We refuse to look away when fathers, mothers, and children are torn from our streets.
Casa Alterna carries that same spirit of resistance. Since this administration began, we’ve stood peacefully outside the gates of ICE. We teach vulnerable immigrant families their constitutional rights. We stand in awe of their resilience and hope. We seek out those most at risk of detention to protect them. We offer hospitality, meals, legal referrals, and accompaniment. And we refuse to look away when fathers, mothers, and children are torn from our streets and locked behind steel bars without due process.
This July 4th, true patriotism demands more than flags and fireworks. It calls for a faithful witness to our highest ideals. We cannot celebrate freedom while our government demonizes immigrants and discards the Constitution in the name of “homeland security.” Instead, we draw on the moral inheritance of the Sanctuary Movement and every community that has stood—and still stands—against oppression.
So on this Tyranny Resistance Day, I invite you to join Casa Alterna. Let us recommit ourselves to a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. Stand with us at the gates of ICE as a Compas volunteer. Let us reclaim the self-evident truth that all people are created equal. And let us affirm that everyone is endowed with the inalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
If America’s promise is to live on, we must become the nation we’ve never fully been.
No tyrant—and no government agency—can own our independence.
Freedom is love in action.
It’s hospitality as resistance.
Together, we pry open the gates of injustice through solidarity.
If America’s promise is to live on, we must become the nation we’ve never fully been.
written by Anton Flores-Maisonet
Image: “After the Election” by Khürt L. Williams / CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.
To volunteer, go to bit.ly/GoodTroubleAtCasaAlterna.
Casa Alterna 
