Morristown Church Joins Hunger Strike to Protest Deportations

St. Margaret’s Church of Scotland on Speedwell Avenue is joining a national campaign to stop the deportation of undocumented people by hosting a vigil and hunger strike this week.

The fast began on Monday and will end Friday with a special vigil recognizing the number of children separated from their parents by deportation.

"We need to stop these deportations and protect our families and keep them together. So many people are suffering, especially the children. A nation like ours should provide a better example for future generations when it comes to family values,” said Diana Mejia, co-founder of Wind of the Spirit, a Morristown-based immigrant rights group that helped organize the event.

About 30 participants start the day with an 8 a.m. mass at the church and come together at 7 p.m. for prayer and a Bible reading led by Maria Eugenia Vargas.

On Wednesday, Salvador Reza, a national spokesman for the National Day Labor Organizing Network will speak on at Wind of the Spirit headquarters in Morristown.

The chain fast began May 1 in Mountainview, Ca., and has been taken up on a weekly basis in states such as Texas, Georgia and Virginia. Next week, for instance, there will be a vigil in Culmore, Va. The first week in July one is scheduled for the Pueblo sin Fronteras in Dallas and the week after that on Long Island, according to a list provided by Vargas.

"Families are being separated,” said Omar Henriquez, a National Day Labor Organizing official in New York. “You have to do something about it.”