Clergy rally for Haitians in Maryland county amid fears of ICE surge

SALISBURY, Md. (RNS) — A week after a local pastor claimed the large Haitian community in his town was being targeted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, the Rev. William Barber, a prominent civil rights activist, joined local faith leaders and dozens of other advocates on Wednesday (Aug. 26) to protest ongoing immigration enforcement efforts in Salisbury.

“If a church is not standing with immigrants that are being terrorized, then it ought to take the name church off and put ‘club’ on the side,” Barber, who heads the Center for Public Theology and Public Policy at Yale Divinity School, told a crowd of dozens gathered outside a county government building.

The defiant message, delivered under a billowing Haitian flag waved by a fellow demonstrator, was a common theme at the rally. Faith leaders said they hoped to draw attention to what locals describe as the harrowing experience of Haitians in Salisbury. In a public letter published last week, Pastor Roosevelt Toussaint, who leads the Word of Life Center, a heavily Haitian congregation in the region, described the Haitian community as “ under attack ” by ICE, claiming some have been arrested or detained while…