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Marching for immigrants on Ash Wednesday

Mark Curnutte
mcurnutte@enquirer.com

Forty people protesting  U.S. immigration policy during the noon hour Wednesday stopped at the entrance to the John Weld Peck Federal Building on Main Street.

Protestors rallied outside of the John Weld Peck Federal Building in downtown Cincinnati on Wednesday, calling for a change to U.S. immigration policy.

Rally leader Mother Paula Jackson addressed marchers and connected the event's purpose to the meaning of Ash Wednesday, which marks the beginning of Lent and preparation for the Christian holiday of Easter.

"It is possible for people to receive ashes on behalf of others and on behalf of the community of which we are part," said Jackson, pastor of the Episcopal Church of Our Savior in Mount Auburn. "We can receive ashes of behalf of our society."

Paul Breidenbach stepped forward and was one of about a half dozen people on whose foreheads Jackson drew a black cross with burnt palm branches.

Paul Breidenbach, Hispanic Tenant Advocate for the fair-housing agency Housing Opportunities Made Equal, receives ashes on his forehead during the rally to mark the beginning of Lent.

"I work a lot in the Guatemalan community," said Breidenbach, Hispanic tenant advocate for the fair-housing agency Housing Opportunities Made Equal. "Our country enforced its will in Central America and fundamentally changed the society for the worse. We exported (gangs). People are coming here for safety, but we are sending them back to violence that we helped to create."

Rally organizers said they oppose the most recent removal priority of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE): women with small children and unaccompanied minors who emigrated since the start of 2014 to escape gang-related violence and threats in El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala.

ICE agents appeared before dawn last week in an East Price Hill apartment complex that is home to a large number of Central American immigrants. ICE did not reveal the reason behind its presence for several consecutive mornings, but community advocates said they thought the purpose was to serve arrest warrants on a small number of women.

Marchers who walked twice around the federal building Wednesday afternoon sang, prayed and chanted, "Lead us to justice." Many carried signs reading, "Stop separating families."

Protestors rally outside of the John Weld Peck Federal Building in downtown Cincinnati, calling for a change to U.S. immigration policy.

Christian teaching refers to Ash Wednesday as a day on which the faithful wear an outward mark -- ashes on the forehead -- as a symbol of personal repentance and to grieve and lament injustice done to society's most vulnerable people.

Memories of Guatemalan children she once taught in Maryland as part of a two-year national teacher corps program moved Jaime Kent to march for 45 minutes on the 19-degree day.

"Children in these immigrant families are terrified that they will have to go back to their violent homelands," said Kent, a Teach For America alumna, former Maryland Dream Act organizer and Northside community member. "The least I can do is march to show my solidarity with them."

An estimated 100,000 families, primarily women and children, have crossed the Southern border illegally since the start of 2014. Most have been arrested but allowed to move on to reunite with relatives already living in the United States. Several hundred women with children and unaccompanied Central American children are living in Greater Cincinnati.

The issue of immigration and how to treat the newly arrived Central Americans remains contentious. Republican presidential candidates Donald Trump and Ted Cruz are among those calling for widespread deportation of undocumented Central American and Mexican immigrants. Trump said he supports construction of a wall extending from Texas westward to California to deter illegal immigration.

Discord showed itself toward the end of the Ash Wednesday rally. As some marchers moved forward to receive their ashes from Jackson, a man walked through the crowd on the sidewalk and said loudly, without slowing, "Trump for president."

"Free country," one marcher said. "I vote, too."