St. Martin de Porres Students Tackle Immigration Reform
11/29/2011

They go about it quietly, but once a month St. Martin de Porres High School students travel from Waukegan to a Chicago area detention center, to pray for people being deported --- that day.

Br. Michael Gosch, CSV, a social worker at the high school accompanies them. He and the teens join members of the Interfaith Committee for Detained Immigrants as well as other people of faith, at the vigil which takes place weekly. Often, they are the only high schools students to participate.

“We attend the vigils to stand in solidarity with those being deported, that day,” Br. Gosch says, “as well as their families.”

The crowd varies in number and nationality, yet they combine by saying decades of the rosary in different languages, even as the bus pulls away with detainees headed to the airport.

“My father was deported,” one of the teens says. “It was really hard seeing my mother struggle and hearing my dad’s stories of his mistreatment in jail. He’s been back for a long time now, but I think of my dad every time I see that bus pulling away. It’s very emotional.”

The students’ dedication caught the attention of Nancy Polacek, of the Archdiocese of Chicago, who invited them to be interviewed on her monthly show on Relevant Radio.

“I really believe,” she said, “that these students reflect Christ’s light in what they do.”