Seven Vermont clergy arrested while protesting ICE targeting center

(RNS) — Seven faith leaders were arrested in Williston, Vermont on Friday morning (Sept. 4), for blockading the entrances to a building where workers help immigration agents target their efforts, with the clergy insisting their faith compels them to oppose President Donald Trump’s ongoing mass deportation campaign.

The arrests occurred as faith leaders sought to decry the actions of the National Criminal Analysis and Targeting Center, one of three major facilities that help Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents target their operations.

According to the Rev. Rebecca Girrell, a United Methodist pastor who took part in the protest and was among those arrested, faith leaders began blocking the building’s entrances at about 7:30 a.m. They remained there for roughly three hours, with the clergy singing, praying and reading the names of people Girrell said have “been killed in ICE interactions or died in detention.”

Ultimately, Girrell was arrested by Vermont state police alongside six others: two United Church of Christ ministers, an Episcopal priest and the archdeacon of the Episcopal Diocese of Vermont, a Quaker leader and a Unitarian Universalist minister.

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