Holly Henschen
Lights for Liberty protest
Hundreds marched down West Washington Avenue where they joined a vigil protest against U.S. treatment of immigrants and refugees.
Anna Paretskaya marched down West Washington Avenue Friday evening with a few hundred others, holding a neon green sign that read “CLOSE THE CAMPS NOW.” Paretskaya came to the United States as an international student in 1997. Now a U.S. citizen, she is a sociology professor at UW-Madison where she studies political movements.
“I grew up in the Soviet Union — I’m Jewish — so as a child, I experienced anti-semitism,” Paretskaya said. “So I consider myself, to a certain extent, a refugee from that, even though technically, I’m not. I think that what is happening today to people who are seeking asylum from horrible situations is appalling, so I want to support people who are in even worse situations than I was when I came.”
Paretskaya was among about 500 people protesting the treatment of immigrants and refugees by the U.S. government. After marching down West Washington, they joined others at Brittingham Park for a candlelight vigil that lasted more than three hours. The rallies coincided with others held around the country and the world. They come ahead of massive raids that the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has announced will begin on Sunday, July 14, in an attempt to round up undocumented immigrants.
“Last fall, ICE conducted raids in Madison and snatched up dozens of people and took them away from their families and deported them,” said Scot McCullough, a march organizer and member of the local chapter of Close the Concentration Camps. “That’s terrible and we have to figure out how to protect those people.”
In September, ICE arrested 83 immigrants in 14 counties in Wisconsin, including 20 in Dane County. McCullough notes that Wisconsin is home to detention centers in Kenosha and Juneau that contract with ICE. “This isn’t just something that’s happening at the border thousands of miles away,” he said.
Matt Rothschild, executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, told Isthmus that not only is the Trump administration’s border policy inhumane, it’s also a blight on America’s international reputation.
“It’s getting to the point where we have to consider what kind of country we are anymore and whether we’re going to need an underground railroad or to keep people in our attics and keep them out of the hands of the immigration authorities who are making raids that are unjustified,” Rothschild said. “It’s just really important to protest and say we won’t support this anymore.”
Holly Henschen
News-Rally2-07-13-2019
Many speakers and protesters at the vigil talked about the harm being caused to young children in the detention facilities.
Nancy Ranum of Madison noted that many children experienced trauma from the countries they’re fleeing, only to experience more trauma when they’re separated from their parents at the U.S. border. “Taking children away from their parents — that’s kidnapping,” Ranum said. “And that doesn’t even [include] the conditions they’re held in.”
Paretskaya has hope that conditions can improve.
“It’s very upsetting, but at the same time, there are so many people here who care about this issue,” she said. “This is very inspiring that there are so many Americans who empathize with people in concentration camps. Overall, I think this is a good country and we can make it better.”