“He was taken. He’s not coming for them anymore.”
We always set our aluminum cans outside of the recycling bin for Don Cucho. But the bag sat there all day that week. When I asked about it, his wife said, “He was taken. He’s not coming for them anymore.”
For years, Don Cucho has made a living collecting cans and bottles in our city and exchanging them at the recycling center. Like so many neighbors taken by immigration enforcement this year, he has been working and surviving at the margins. Fathers washing cars. Construction workers. Elderly day laborers. Families piecing life together week by week.
When someone is taken, the loss is immediate. Rent still comes due. Kids still need to get to school. Groceries still run out. Fear settles into the smallest routines, and whole households feel the ground shift overnight.
We do what we can. We sit with families as they cry. We offer partial rental help when possible. We help people make sense of paperwork. We connect them to legal services. It is not enough, but it is what can be carried alongside them.
Today I received a message that stopped me. “Estoy preocupada por ti y por John.” Doña Beti was worried for our safety.
Henri Nouwen wrote, “Compassion asks us to go where it hurts.” Any risk carried for being a moral witness is nothing compared to the terror our friends are experiencing. This is a tumultuous time, and presence matters.
As a faith fueled community, the motivation is not attention or personal gain. We are fueled by the One who “saves the needy from the clutches of the powerful… so the poor have hope, and injustice shuts its mouth.” (Job 5:15–16)
This week, like every week, we stand with immigrants.
Heather Chapman
Co-Executive Director
If you’d like to contribute to a fund that is used exclusively for direct support for our immigrant community, please click here. We are providing immediate relief checks to families of those detained in South OC, scholarships for passports for children of immigrants and more. 100% of funds that come in go back out to the community.
