“Loving our neighbors is our resistance.”

The following reflection is written by Pax Christi USA Ambassador of Peace Kathy O’Leary, who serves as coordinator of Pax Christi New Jersey. Kathy is a lead organizer of the ongoing presence of support and resistance outside Delaney Hall, the massive ICE detention center in Newark.

Some people know Delaney Hall as the immigration detention center where the mayor of New Jersey’s largest city was taken into custody by ICE. However, to the hundreds of volunteers and thousands of visitors who have spent time there over the last year, it is the place where our kidnapped neighbors and loved ones are being held.

Doremus Avenue, where Delaney Hall is located, is not an easy place to be. It is in Newark’s “chemical corridor” surrounded by industrial facilities spewing various odors and toxins. It is a four lane road heavily traveled by trucks leaving the nearby port; a freight line across the street carries garbage to a nearby incinerator. Only a few blocks away to the south is one of the largest sewage treatment plants in the country. The management of the for-profit facility, GEO Group, has provided no parking, and until about February, provided no indoor waiting area for visitors.

Over the past year we have fostered a community that includes the visitors and volunteers. We bring what we need to be able to stay outside the facility, either to wait to get in or to offer help and support to those who are waiting. In the summer we bring things like cold water in coolers filled with ice to make the heat bearable and umbrellas to block the sun. In the winter we bring hand warmers, blankets, hats and gloves and hot coffee. We always have snacks and sometimes hot food. We set up pop-up tents and tables at the edge of the driveway to hold the “compliance clothing” that we loan to people who are wearing something that does not meet the dress code. We dubbed it the “radical hospitality zone.”

At the end of January, after several snow storms and bitterly cold nights, Essex County came through with a tent made of heavy vinyl which was set up on property adjacent to Delaney Hall. Our radical hospitality zone moved into the radical hospitality tent which is where we distribute diapers, grocery store gift cards, and pantry bags and where we offer hot coffee and food.

The visitors who are touched by the care they receive will often return with food and supplies or to help translate. It is common for people who have been released to come back and visit. Volunteers who come and witness the dedication of the visitors and the warmth and energy that a friendly face provides to someone who is incarcerated will offer to visit those who have no one.

We involve the broader community through fundraising and collections of items to distribute. Further flung communities in New Jersey and New York raise money for grocery store gift cards for the families with breadwinners inside, commissary for the people inside to buy essentials like soap and toothpaste, and bonds funds for people so they can be released. Sometimes they collect items like toys for the many children who come or fill and deliver pantry bags.

From the beginning we have done all of this under the watchful eye of images of Mary which adorn the site and the tent. The images we have are not the fair skinned and blue veiled depiction of Our Lady. They are the Virgin Guadalupe in zip ties escorted by ICE agents (original image created by Katie Jo Suddaby), Mary with her fist in the air encircled by the words of the Magnificat instructing us to fill the hungry and lift up the lowly, and Mary represented as an indigenous woman of the Americas behind a chain link fence with a mylar blanket as her veil. Her presence helps assure new visitors and is a reminder to volunteers that while Mary was meek she possessed great courage and strength. She reminds us of many of the women we meet outside Delaney Hall.

Like Mary we do not directly clash with the powers of the empire. Our mission is quieter and simpler, but it is no less powerful. It is to accompany people and provide comfort. Our goal is to help as many people get in to see their loved ones as possible. Loving our neighbors is our resistance.

Find out more about Pax Christi New Jersey’s presence at Delaney Hall at the Pax Christi NJ Instagram account.

Use this link to use the Freedom for Immigrants’ interactive map to see if there is an ICE detention center in your area.

Photos by Tom Lynch