We are celebrating 15 years — and counting — of stories that are deeply researched and deeply felt, that build a historical record of what the city has been.
We are celebrating 15 years — and counting — of stories that are deeply researched and deeply felt, that build a historical record of what the city has been.
Thursday morning, May 29, a group of faith leaders and allies gathered outside of the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building, as they do each week, rain or shine, in blazing heat or frigid cold, to participate in the Jericho Walk. Offering silent prayer and meditation, they circle seven times around the Lower Manhattan building, which houses immigration courts and regional offices for the US Department of Homeland Security and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. After the final time around, the group prays aloud, concluding with a prolonged scream.
For this group, the 41-story tower is a symbol of the wide-reaching harms inflicted by the federal government onto immigrants nationwide. But for those who daily enter the building for ICE check-ins or court dates, the proceedings are the sources of all-too-real fear and trauma. The Trump administration recently directed ICE to target individuals who have reported to immigration court hearings — including a New York City high school student — for arrest and “expedited removal” after judges dismiss their cases. The day before the Jericho Walk, a Queens pastor was detained inside while attempting to observe ICE arrests by plainclothes officers wearing face masks. It is part of a wider escalation of intimidation, arrests, disappearances, and deportations.
The Trump administration’s actions and policies around immigration are a cruel escalation, but they are the continuation of a system that has long treated immigrants in immoral and dehumanizing ways. For millennia, people from faith communities have organized to provide sanctuary and support to their brothers, sisters, and friends seeking shelter and navigating unjust systems. This principle informs the work of the New Sanctuary Coalition (NSC), led by Episcopalian immigration activist Ravi Ragbir. In addition to leading the weekly Jericho Walk, NSC’s community witnesses immigration court proceedings and accompanies friends to court dates and appointments with ICE. Their presence demonstrates to the courts that people are part of a wider community, and can sometimes dissuade judges from imposing deportations. Since March, NSC has also been laying the groundwork to prepare neighborhood-based rapid response groups for ICE raids and arrests.
After the Jericho Walk on May 29, Ragbir joked that when New Sanctuary Coalition started the practice, during the Trump administration’s first term, the building was sinking into the ground and in need of repairs. The Jericho Walks paused while Ragbir navigated his own attempted deportation, which ultimately ended with an eleventh-hour pardon by President Biden; during that time, the Federal Building underwent a plaza reconstruction and roof replacement, amongst other work. But now, several months into the Jericho Walk’s revival, he noticed it has begun deteriorating once again: broken windows covered with plywood and “Band-Aids” on the building’s facade. Maybe, slowly, the prayers for the walls of injustice to come down are working. Below, Ragbir shares what it means to confront this building every week, and how faith communities are building a network of support in neighborhoods across the city. – KRJ
With the New Sanctuary Coalition, you organize a weekly “Jericho Walk” every Thursday at Federal Plaza. What does this practice look like?
26 Federal Plaza houses Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security. It also has immigration courts. A lot of harm comes from this building, whether you are going to immigration court or have to report to a deportation officer. Whenever people come in here to deal with immigration, they don’t know if they will be coming back out: they are terrified, they are traumatized, they are worried. It is not just the individuals that are worried but also their families. If you have friends and community, they will also be concerned. When people are going in there, there’s a lot of trauma. It is a space of darkness, but also represents other locations where deportations are being coordinated throughout the country. We are here, but we are sending out our energy throughout the country to stop this.
We start at 11:00 am at 26 Federal Plaza. We walk seven times around the building. It takes about an hour and ten minutes. We walk — this is not a procession — and each time, when we start, we raise our hands and say a prayer in silence. In the last revolution, we say the prayer aloud and then scream and shout as loudly as we can.
New Sanctuary Coalition is faith-based. It is embedded in the houses of worship. And those houses of worship are churches, synagogues, masjids, temples, mandirs. Everyone who practices is welcome to be a member. And because we are faith-based, a lot of the work we do is steeped within that faith angle and the scriptures that we follow.
For faith-based people, Jericho evokes a certain amount of imagery that comes from the Bible, and maybe the Torah or the Quran. It’s a Judeo-Christian story: God told the people they couldn’t win against the city, and God told them to walk around the building seven times — in silence, with only the drums and the trumpets making noise. And at the end of the seventh time, when they all scream, the walls tumble down.
Immigration is such a beast, right? Such a monster, that it is very hard for any particular group to actually make a change. We don’t expect to win this if we just do it in the physical. We now apply our scriptures, our faith, and say: “We are giving it up to the universe, to God, whoever you name him — Yahweh, Jesus, Allah, Krishna, it doesn’t matter. It’s just giving it up to the universe and letting the universe deal with the evil and the darkness that is represented by this place.”
Before the walk, you alluded to some recent unethical changes to how immigration courts are handling cases.
It is as bad as it always was. What has happened is this presidential administration has been stopping people from accessing the court in a very unethical way. In May of 2025, people are being called in to immigration court hearings, and then the cases will be dismissed. When they are dismissed, they go back into the undocumented status, but because they recently arrived across the border, they fall under the category called “expedited removal,” where you don’t have access to the courts, and they could just put you on a plane and deport you to your birth country. That is unethical because they were in the court proceedings already: that process is supposed to be continued until its finality. Apart from the darkness of how regularly people are terrified, this administration has added more evil to that.
There’s a long legacy of faith-based organizing around immigration. What are New Sanctuary Coalition’s origins?
When I got released from detention, I volunteered with one of the few organizations that worked with people who have criminal convictions. Everyone’s scapegoat at that time was: “Okay, deport the bad immigrants and just keep the good immigrants.” There was a call to the faith community to see if they could help change the immigration law and process. That’s how New Sanctuary was created. We welcome everyone with convictions, and that’s where our energy came from, our start. We welcomed everyone and helped everyone.
We believe no one should be deported. Why? Because immigration law is based on racism, and you can go back to the beginning and see — it still continues to be like that — you just have to look at the numbers. It is also based on economic injustice, where if you have enough money, you can buy a Green Card. You could be smart, committed, strong, have ethics, and think you could come here, and there’s a so-called American Dream — you will not be allowed into the country unless you fit certain categories. And the categories are money, special visas — you went to university, and you got your master’s degree or your PhD, or you’re an entertainer like Justin Bieber — they are the ones who will be given entry. No one else would be allowed in, except for certain visa-waiver countries like Canada, England, France, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland. Do you see a trend here?
What does the word “sanctuary” mean to you and your coalition?
It’s scripture. It’s hundreds and thousands of years where the churches were supposed to be off-limits from war. Sanctuary has been a traditional principle for eons, and that is why it’s a safe space.
I don’t care who you are — I have tons of volunteers who say they are not members of any church or don’t believe in God. My response to them is, “Well, you’re here, right?” And they say, “Yes, I’m here.” And I say, “Well, isn’t that faith? That your action is going to make a difference?” Everybody has an inner belief that there’s a higher power, and that higher power actually is represented by the house of worship and the leaders of that. They have a natural authority apart from the government. They form another pillar of that authority, and that’s why we focus on working with the faith community.
In the 1980s, there was a pastor in Arizona called John Fife. When they had the war in El Salvador, the administration was deporting people there. Fife and his church opened up the house of worship for people to stay in and protect our community. Those who were going to be deported were housed in the sanctuary. And because the churches were a safe space, Immigration and Naturalization Services (which later became ICE) did not violate that sanctity. That was the “Sanctuary Movement” then. We added the word “new” to “New Sanctuary,” distinguishing it from the 1980s to the present moment. It is about the same principle of having our houses of worship become that safe space for people who are terrified, worried, and not sure what is going to happen to them.
Recently, there have been unfounded rumors of ICE making arrests in houses of worship. How does that impact your community?
When people who don’t know better hear this, they will allow themselves to be intimidated and manipulated. ICE has not gone into a church. What has happened is they arrest people in the parking lot outside the houses of worship. That’s not the same thing. It shows how much they respect the space, and they do not want to violate it.
Where that is a narrative that is going on, people are afraid. People now will be isolated in their home, which makes it more dangerous. They have nowhere to turn to because they normally go into the house of worship, but because they’re afraid, that community that would be built in that space is not there. If ICE picks them up, they disappear and no one knows. That’s why it’s a very dangerous narrative.
Beyond the Jericho Walks, the New Sanctuary Coalition works directly with people going through the immigration process. What are some of the core ways you provide support?
We are not a service provider. We are a change provider.
Everyone can call themselves a service provider. If all you’re doing is helping people with their application or preparing documents, that’s a service. If all you’re doing is paperwork in this horrendous space, you are doing a disservice because you are shoring up the system. When someone has a deportation or immigration hearing or is released from detention, you are now fulfilling a role that maintains the status quo. That is not what we are. We are about advocacy and changing. One of the programs we have is to help people with the application, but as we work with them, we educate them on the process. And in educating them, we also encourage them to participate in actions and in events.
When we say we believe no one should be deported, it means that we welcome people, no matter what country you’re from, what language you speak, what your sexuality, gender, or culture is, your history with convictions.
We have three rules that we train members on: “No judgment; respect; and do no harm.” You’re not going to be judged on why you’re there. You are just a person. We are helping another person, a human being. In fact, we don’t call people who are going through the immigration process “immigrants” — we call them “friends.” We respect all our friends; we think of them as equals.
When we say change, we are educating. We’re not expecting friends to protest or do anything. But what you will be surprised about is that they would tell a friend, and their friend will come to us. When they talk to people, they will assure people. They become a source of information, of connection, so that others understand them. And also, they will invite them to the work they do.
In addition to that — let’s say you are going through the immigration process. We show you how to file the paperwork, how to be prepared for court. But we also accompany you, not just to the immigration court but to every interaction you have in immigration, whether you go to a deportation officer or a Green Card interview. Whatever reason you have to go in, we will accompany you.
That’s different than court witnessing. In court witnessing, we are not going there with any individual; we are just sitting in court, observing and monitoring what is happening: how the judge is interacting with the friends, the decisions, how he treats people.
Most of our training includes telling people how to shut up; how to be silent. Remember the part where I said, “Do no harm?” If we are going into Federal Plaza, it’s about being silent. If we are going into immigration court, it’s about being silent. In court witnessing, we usually don’t say anything unless the judge asks us: “Who are you?” Then, we will have one leader do the speaking and explain who we are so that we are showing the court who is in the courtroom. There are many times the judge will explain to the friends: “You have New Sanctuary here.” If we have accompanied someone, the judge would put it on record that we are here accompanying the person, or they would say that New Sanctuary is here with them.
New Sanctuary Coalition’s work happens not just in the spaces of the immigration system, but also in neighborhoods with your “SanctuaryHood” program. Why is it important to organize locally?
Under this new administration, ICE has been given the mandate to go in an area and just take, kidnap, or capture people. What is bizarre is they are doing this en masse now. You saw what happened to the students; they were just snatched up and thrown in a van, like the Mafia. What people have been doing — and what we did in the past — is create rapid-response teams. A rapid-response team is: if I am picked up, you are in the area, so if ICE is looking for me, you will be able to show up in support of me, to witness what is happening and monitor and document what is going on. We’re not talking about one or two people; we talk about building all the community.
Let’s say, for instance, I live in Harlem, a place where they have a lot of immigrants. You could do individuals and say, “If you get a knock on the door, don’t open the door.” But if you have a team of people who live in the area you can call, they can mobilize. But if you expand that, and you say, “We are going to work with the businesses in the area now, have them participate, have the churches in the area participate,” that’s another program where we engage churches to become sanctuary spaces, we engage our businesses to become sanctuary spaces. They are taught how to challenge ICE and how to encourage ICE to leave.
New Sanctuary is talking to the businesses in the area to be part of the safety net for that community. And because they live in the community, the response is immediate. I live in Brooklyn, and someone from Harlem is going to be a waste of energy; you’re not waiting for people to take trains.
We have worked with Richmond Hill in Queens and are working in places like Corona and Woodhaven. Those are the places we are targeting because they have a lot of immigrants. We knew that we could go in there and we could make a difference because we don’t need to physically be there every day. If we are all part of a rapid response, I don’t have to live in that area, but I could get them information and mobilize.
The views expressed here are those of the authors only and do not reflect the position of The Architectural League of New York.
