Burning in the glover joining the sickness is women am a crying for him original Justin will be starting our press conference in just a second thank you so much for joining us can you not be here but you wanted to be wanted to stand with us in solidarity for head and share this live feed like writing setup we wanted to show you a little bit of the behind the scenes action we're gonna face from all across the country are joining many help us get that action and our time everybody is still to be special it is pick up More color so many women have come out to stand in solidarity with us will be starting momentarily yes um this is one of our clergy please can't you do serve yourself and tell us why you're here today my name is reverend on sanders and I'm the founder and ceo of pioneer learning international I feel that it is completely unjust to separate parents page children uh detain children in cages and I believe as a moral responsibility as a woman of faith to stand and push back against the powers that would use their power to unjustly Use children and families that are seeking asylum so I'm here today is a big leader delivered my voice with other women who are standing in the gap for those who can't speak for themselves so I'm so grateful for this opportunity thank you thank you so much thank you so much for gonna be getting started just moments here perfect I think like going live sharks happy to grab rob I tell us why you're here today thank you thank you actually I'm barbara weinstein not a rabbi a little hotter today included the director of the Commission on social action of reform judaism in the reform Jewish movement Largest denomination in North American Jewish life I believe so strongly that the separation of parents from their children is just an affront to our Jewish values our moral values and so we are here standing with our colleagues and people who favor across the denominations spectrum to demand that the administration and it's reprehensible policy uh we're gonna do all we can to keep it off and on congregations across the country and he was able to meet with them and make sure that families are reunited and parents of children with other We can close It is I got it The So what will people Ready to resume their Boom bring the Sun cheap Then a great artist with a bid so she so she looked like this Alright we're about to get started one minute Logan set up there with the board For People You might need approval to all right better now All right thank you so much for joining us we are about to get started a little bit with us in song Good morning everyone I'm sorry to see everyone here today We shouldn't have to be doing this Please join us in singing this little light of mine I do my best here with one of my This little light of mine This is a lot of This is Everywhere I go and Out there in the dark how very 11 Everyone together now is The lettuce A lot of times like in here inside this That is That is A good deal Hi everybody I am the reverend jennifer Butler the ceo of faith and public life and I wanna thank you so much for being here today for this important issue we are standing here on behalf of eight thousand women around this country who are calling on Secretary nielsen of homeland security and attorney general Jeff sessions to end zero tolerance now hanging Chamber and said never ever under any circumstances the separated from their children this is torture and it is simple so today we say to attorney general Jeff sessions and homeland Secretary nielsen what moses said to pharaoh let my people go let the children go say it with me let's go go let's Go let the children go let's go And so can't go let the children go let the children go let the children go let the children go we're morley outraged because a nursing child has been ripped from the arms of her mother we're really outrage because of father whose child was torn from his arms committed suicide in prison we're more Outraged that it's ha rd ll are since screaming and it detention Center pounding the table on consumable because only one who can consult her is her mother who is in detention we were outraged at the tape we all heard last night at children we dig mami papi I'm concerned a bl cards make fun of them we're out That the attorney general just sessions with tear use scripture to justify these anywhere We are outraged that President trump is sentencing these children to a lifetime of trauma outraged that children are being used in a cynical political strategy that is racist and anti immigrant hey Attorney general Jeff sessions who lent Secretary nielsen President trump you are responsible for this policy and it now families belong together Do you not crucify their children on behalf of your White supremacist ideology and then wash your hands like punches pilot justifying it with lies and miss quoting the bible And then everybody innovators their homes right now we wear this Red yellow wrist bands because these are the bands that are put on parents as their parents are torn as their children are torn from their arms we raise our arms in solidarity and unity and in determination let the children go last so go so go let the children go let go let the children go Go we will not rest until the children are unified with their families we believe in freedom will not rest until it comes Good morning my name is reverend michelle Morgan and I tended to alter in the midst of community and saint marks Capitol Hill I'm an episcopal priest a woman of faith and as importantly the seventh child of beatrice rose spend some Morgan my mom was an aboriginal Canadian of the hide a Indian tribe she was taken from her family as a child and placed in residential school that separation Family has cause broken this for my family and they did families all over North America my only comfort was the horrors of the residential school system were to meet dismount old I my family and other survivors hope the children would never again be ripped from their parents that this would never happen again today in the United States that is no longer true I know some stands that the impact of the residential school experience is inter generational we the people of this country have the power to stop this damage and we must stop this I called on the people I call on people of all fields women and men of good conscience to call up this instead administration To stop this stop this separation now stop breaking up families now as a faith leader I cry out in the name of my mother futuristic rose Morgan I cry out to the people that have been damaged and are continuing to be damaged as I speak before this goes any further and the damage moves through the generations and all will suffer thank you My name is nikki toyota mosquito and I'm the executive director for evangelicals for social action and I'm proud to be here on behalf of the two thousand 800 women who are joining their letter with this letter to call on Secretary nielsen and attorney general sessions to stop the zero tolerance policy to stop separating children from their parents while evangelical man or over in trump hotel meeting today I want you to see where the evangelical women are It's Christian women and evangelical women we are joining our man are with women of faith to stand here to call for an end to the separation of children from their parents because this is important and it's morally clear where the stance is jesus was himself a political refugee who was trying to escape violence in his home country and he had to flee we are invited as Christians to respond in our faith that when we welcome the stranger we welcome jesus himself my family He knows what it's like to be criminalize and wrongly incarcerated my family was part of the Mass incarceration of Americans of Japanese descent during world war two when the United States criminal ized existence and being of people of Japanese American descent here it is a period of great regret for our country let this moment now not be the next great period of regrets sometimes we look at history and we wonder I wonder what would I have done in that moment or in that place let me tell you That moral atrocities become clear in hindsight moral atrocities becomes clear when you look through the lens of history this is happening now children are being separated from their parents in terrible ways join and and call on Secretary nielsen and ag sessions to stop ripping children from their parents arms let's end this now My name is marion buddy I served as the bishop of the episcopal diocese of Washington And now I really speak for the We need the women gathered here are proud to speak for both women and men we the women of faith who are mothers are proud to speak on behalf of both mothers and fathers we speak on behalf of all Americans who are horrified that this practice of zero tolerance this practice of taking already traumatized families I don't coming to our borders and inflicting upon them the greatest trauma of all which is seth Ration from each other when they need each other most I speak today as a disciple of jesus christ who taught us that when we welcome the children we welcome him he taught us to welcome children not detain them we must be clear we must be clear that our immigration policies have been devastating for children for a very long time this Take your level of cruelty rises has risen to a new level however and as yet are out cries have not been sufficient to compel our nation's leaders to change course but now my friends with the forced separation of children we are at last witnessing a collective recoil ing from such barbarism as we all Images of toddlers wrenched from their parents arms and hundreds of childrens crowded in detention centers it is searing our National conscience this is not a partisan issue that divides us as a people this is a moral issue that It's nice up across the nation as people of faith as people of conscience people of compassion who speak now with one voice to say that the forced separation of families must stop it must stop as the first essential step on a long road to an immigration policy that no longer bring shame to us all I want to speak now on behalf of the latino congregations that I am proud to serve and I also want to speak to them it can go this year less cannot stand solos so again he has stuck on the sort of loss and established in the West through deals it's the us level you also stop a lot of their lives to see this year in assault ros no bombs up rr they trouble her hooters after casey can be a political as well as we Earlier one day our children and our grandchildren will look back on this current treatment and they're going to be in utter disbelief and they will ask us what did you do to stop such cruelty and we will say we will say brothers and sisters that we showed up and we spoke out that we heard the cries we saw the parents frantic with worry and we responded to say in the name of all that is decent in this country in the name Jeff sessions of the God whose name you did To invoke stop this crime against children and unite migrant families now My name is rabbi esther letterman I'm a board member of true other women a call for human rights I stand here today because I am a jew and because I am a mother and because I am a human being it as Jews we to remember a time when our children were stolen from their parents by a leader felt threatened by their existence farrah wanted to control the Jews so we decided to control the children but a few courageous souls the midwives The mothers of our mothers rose against the actions of farrow and so do we again today in the name of our mothers Sarah rebecca rachel and leah in the names of those midwives who n ship re and the names of all of our mothers and all of our fathers this must end now Ripping apart families is cruel and inhumane and as a practice Associated with authoritarian regimes not Democratic societies with respect for human rights America who do you wanna be as Jews we know too well from history the pain of parents being separated from their children as a result of violent anti semitic state policies as Americans we know the painful history of enslaved families being torn apart of native American children being removed from their homes and have too many other Those are families separated by state violence Jeff sessions let me remind you of a few passages from the good book maybe you weren't in church that Sunday the fifth commandment of the hebrew bible demands that we honor our mothers and our fathers is this honor separating mothers and fathers from our children breaking families apart what about the 36 times it says in the bible do not harm a stranger for you were strangers in the land of Egypt how quickly we forget our Just to the detriment of our nation what about the passage into to run to me that says Justice Justice shall you pursue pursue Justice and do it in a just way is this just pulling nursing children from their mother's breasts is it just putting cages around our children return these children to their parents now And it's deplorable policy now And it's saving these families from further trauma and pain may we save the soul of America at the same time Of that are close to good morning good morning my name is reverend doctor leslie copeland tune and I am the director of ecumenical advocacy days for global peace with Justice and I stand before you today with a heavy heart and a deeply profoundly burden so by the separation of children from their parents at the southern borders of the United States of America I stand before As a mother and I danes fastest Minister point definitely 17 years today outraged by the way that these families seeking asylum who have loans persecution and violence in their own lands are being down terrorized by the inhumane hate filled and immoral policies of the trump administration led by attorney general jefferson beauregard sessions and the Secretary kirsten nielsen took when it quite frankly these policies and the treatment of those coming to our borders seeking asylum is pure and unadulterated evil that will have lasting harmful impact on these families and most especially these children I stand before you today because I refused to be silent in the face of such evil I refuse to shrug my shoulders to post pictures with myself and my children like some of our officials on social media So hug them and love them and care for them and ignore the fact that families are being torn apart children they're being terrorized mistreated and traumatized and subjected to the most despicable kind of cruelty and the name of America and shamefully in the name of God as well To end immediately as a clergy woman I have worked with children of separation and divorce whose lives have been impacted by disruptions and their family life due to circumstances beyond their control I can tell you that separation from parents can be devastating for children it walks their foundation and world and puts everything in doubt for them it is a painful experience that everyone should avoid but to deliver And intentionally put children through this kind of trauma separating them from their parents locking them in cages like animals for political game can only be characterized as evil it can only be called contemptible and a performance and we must do everything within our power as people of faith and as American citizens to make sure this evil and immediately yes these are some Chris quest violence looking for a place a safe place as a sanctuary if you will and instead just sessions and kiersten nielsen have in this land of the free and home of the brave tied it into a living hell for the most vulnerable totally unacceptable that is why we must stand and stand and speak out to end this nightmare if we do not it will be on us we have to declare Loudly and unequivocally that we will not let this continue watching as many of you did the images and hearing the sounds of the voices of those children crying out for their parents If you Hearing the stories of these families I could not help but think is this Nazi Germany God have mercy on us this is the evil that we must fight with all of our being every person of faith and good conscious in this nation must demand that this practice and today right now without hesitation without another And right now Right yeah And now and now Today is June team it is the day that enslaved African people in Texas finally got word that slavery had ended it is a day that they learned of their freedom you see there was no social media or cell phone at the time so they had to wait for the word of freedom to come and even though the emancipation proclamation went into effect January first it was not until this day June nineteenth that the slaves in Texas found out that they were free I don't think it's a going to this that we stand here today as people have been Demanding freedom and Justice for these children We must recognize that even though the idea of this being an American is true the history of America tells us different stories they history of America shows that White supremacy is rearing its ugly head and the most horrible way once again that it is staying the soul of our nation that it is a stain that will not go away on its own it is a stain that Jeff sessions it keeps adding to with policies like this one it is a stain cause when native American children were torn from their parents it is the stain left African people see humanize and enslaved in this country it is the stain left by putting Japanese an interment camp it is the stain left by children of people seeking asylum who are being ripped from their mother's press and unlawfully detained it is a stain that we must remove by fighting for Justice for these families demanding that it stop immediately and that these families are reunited as soon as possible until they We're going to fight without prayers were going to fight by speaking out we're gonna sweat fight without actions and we're gonna fight without vote come November And finally an a moment like this to stand for Justice and righteousness to stand up to take a stand for the ideal principles of the American flag that the American flag represents we might need to do it on bended knee we need to do it by lifting our voices and demanding that those who represent us in Congress and those who are part of this administration immediately and this nightmare in this tragedy at our waters we need to do it by resisting and persisting until freedom and Justice and dignity are restored to these families and to our Thank you My name is catty gar Le and I am a competitor Jeff montrose a lo Tom a campaign directed at moms rising and I will talk to muscle up and I'm a mom and I'm an immigrant Thank you announcement of administration's so called zero tolerance policy that intentionally takes children away from a silence speak aaron reflects the patented breathtaking cruelty by this m administration within six weeks of this of this policy being announced two thousand children two thousand children were taken from their parents this is resulting in a breathtaking quoting devastation inside Texas press reported paying hundreds of children alone and 20 or more children through a cage 20 or more children to a cage As a mother as an immigrant I can't imagine having my children taken away from me and my faith calls on me to want to others but I want to let off Just add with parents in the car at the border we're experiencing this devastating cruelty and it called on me to stand here today To get this poll dangerous at absolutely immoral practice Oh million members at moms rising and demanding that the administration act immediately to ensure that no asylum seeking parent is separated and that all families are treated with dignity and descend respect I stand with america's moms who pulled that thousands of children have been possible possibly separated from their parents and sent into our already overwhelmed child welfare and foster care systems no one is better proof better equipped to care for these children than their parents What is happening at the border must end and the administration is the one who can and show them this And get us and it and the same teen and the dignity of every family must be insured thank you My name is marlena graves and I run an email an jell kl circles we have almost three thousand women and mothers that have signed a letter and the not without my child campaign calling on the President ag sessions and Secretary nielsen to immediately stop this demonic practice of separating children from their I've been working on this for almost 10 years but about a month ago I was tossing and turning I could not sleep when I saw what was happening to unaccompanied children and two children were being ripped away from their families at the border I have three young daughters and as was said earlier how can I stand and look them in the eyes and tell them that I did nothing in my time in history as Bench and we always say what would we do if that were me I would have spoken up now is the time to call for the end of the team on a practice a few weeks ago several about evangelical women and authors I'm a writer I work at my church I'm a seminary professor we wrote this letter and it is catching fire all throughout the country we again say jesus said and I read my bible and I know my American history so if you have your bibles there we probably falls being Our bibles hold your bible up if you haven't or maybe your phone cuz that's where your bible and I read my bible and I know my American history has already been said jesus would not stand for this Jesus said but the double has come to steal kill and destroy but I have come that you might have like John tech we ask a nation are still we are kidnapping children state sponsored nap we are stealing killing and destroying families were acting like the devil's that is not the way of jesus if you call yourself a Christian or even want to align as a Christian this is not pro life it's protest So again in the name of jesus christ go by serving bo I don't fell to caesar about a jesus ask that you would stop the scheme or od manic behavior your constituents the ones that you say are evangelicals are calling out to you to tell you to stop or you something you're serving all of us so but I mean said models e me said mano se stumble sufi and open status he bet he was Yet not that they have a number that has I am pastor sandra Maria van obstacle from grace and peace and Chicago and I am here as a mother as the child of immigrants and as a pastor to say that immigration is not only a political concern it is a personal and a pastoral reality and concern that we carry in our bodies every day and I'm just going to already broken and we thought it couldn't get worse and then the other Company miners came and we thought it couldn't get worse and all the asylum seekers come and we separate children from their parents' policies are connected to faces and stories of real human beings and brothers and sisters if you can put your head down at night and sleep well and these days it is because you are not seeing them as human children these Names Roy says and he thought listen I love spencer my bill and these children are cages and soon to be intense and so my brother my sisters have done a great job of sharing facts with you and telling you what is true what is evil what is corrupt what is unjust and I want us to close our eyes and enter into these spaces that we have seen and heard and I want you to hear the voices of the children I am a promise high am a possibility I am a promise with the Capitol view I am a great big brother love attention to team and see And I am learning to you guys for and I am trying to make the list I am a promise to me and it got along for me those are the voices of our children and tourney general sessions and you are destroying that possibility those are the voices of our children homeland security Secretary nielsen and you are destroying the possibility Congress men and women who are not speaking or silent and this time you are destroyed Don't possibility charges charge meters people of faith if you say you love God and you show up with your nice clothes and you enter that building on Sunday your Saturday let's let you up your hands and you single sharm so well and you do nothing you say nothing you call no one you are destroying the possibility we have an opportunity to do something to do something now to mobilize now and our invitation not just these walls around here But in your couches and in your living rooms your invitation is to pick up that phone right that email call that person and make this invitation of becoming a possibility a reality for these kids to allow them to live to allow them to flourish and if we say nothing God have mercy on us for putting on our nice clothes and singing some songs and pretending that we are people of faith All that was powerful and are We're here to listen to the children were here to listen to children we're here to listen to the children and their parents So let's take a minute and just be with the pain and the suffering of the children and their parents Financials ce ima school sisters of notre dame and the associate director for social mission for the leadership conference of women religious whose members represent 38 pounds and Catholic sisters across this nation It's an honor for me to be able to stand here today with my sisters up many things to stand in solidarity with families who are threatened and abused by our government's own actions For us this is personal Catholic sisters came to this country almost 300 years ago we came as immigrants we came to serve immigrants and we continue to Minister to immigrant families and schools and hospitals social service agencies across this country we see the devastating effects of our unjust immigration system every single day Family is the bedrock of our society is the cornerstone of our immigration system and it's foundational to our faith as women afaik as Catholic sisters we condemn the trump administration's decision to forcibly separating parents from their children in an effort to punish families seeking safe Like mary and Joseph who fled the horrors of kick harris the savior instance sons these mothers and fathers are taking tremendous risks to bring their children to safety These are families forced to flee violence and death in their home countries I believe they have the right I believe they have the obligation to seek protection for their children and we are morally obligated to welcome It's impossible to imagine the fear of a child being ripped from the arms of her mother or the pain of a father watching as a stranger takes to Sun it's cruel it's inhumane and it must stop yes that's our faith demands it our National values require it please join me in standing against this travesty and demanding the President trump general sessions and Secretary nielsen stop this now We are minutes out stop this now We cannot stop and ticket to steal our children And they can't continue to steal our children not in our name not now not ever again it's so we ask God to break open the heart of our nation to forgive our own complicity in this grave injustice and we besiege you are lady of guadalupe the patron of the americas to protect all of our immigrant families and to keep her children safe My name is barbara weinstein I am the director of the addition on social thing overnight going to try to get my name is barbara weinstein I'm the director of the Commission on social action of reform judaism the largest denomination in North American Jewish life with a million and a half congregants to thousand rabbis in 900 congregations across the country yeah at the core of our reform Jewish faith is choice we choose To live out the teachings and traditions of our faith that give meaning and purpose to our lives and connect us to one another every day we choose between darkness and lights we choose between acts of hertz and acts of loving kindness we choose between blessings and curses What's happening at our border is also a choice it is a choice to separate children from their parents it is a choice to talk about building walls instead of building compassion and you stood up for what is a choice the deported parents and leave their children in legal limbo Those are the wrong choices it's the wrong choice for families who are being broken it's the wrong choice for the thousands of children who are being traumatized and it is the wrong choice for this country founded more than two centuries ago by immigrants and strengthened throughout our history by immigrants 70 years ago my grandparents left the horrors of Europe with my infant mother and two suitcases that had all they owned the trauma of that experience and that journey to this country to this continent and a haven an opportunity a promise of freedom the trauma of that experience stayed with them throughout their lives it has been passed down generation to generation and a piece of that trauma lives within me let's Pretend that the children that are being separated from their parents today are not feeling that trauma that they won't feel that trauma for the rest of their lives that that drama will end with this generation because it will continue to the next and the next that trauma will go on because of the decisions that are being made the choices that are being made and our border today so we're here today because we are also making a choice we choose And with families that are fleeing violence and persecution we choose to reject a false narrative about why this is happening we choose to say to the President to the vice President to the Secretary of homeland security to the Secretary of health and human services to the attorney general and the policy of family separation today We are here because we know we are inspired by we live out the words of that Ahmed that remind us by the breadth of children God sustains the world thank you I am James And there's a danger and minty and I represent the women bishops of the United methodist church goes in Hello and I missed your children suffer from Alan Ms infants and children and we've been ripped from the arms of their parents how are we as a nation continue to abuse other human beings because of their immigration status how lo will we continue to make a mockery of those inspirational very Give me paired there we're hunting message many tournaments three one of the most disappointing and shameful aspects for me address her time this current policy of tearing children from their parents is it is possible a person has been implemented by attorney general jefferson sessions who has a better United methodist shame she's I have a said the sense of sadness and despair that somehow he has understood of raisin ravens to Grant permission for such heinous actions that they see parents has also been used to justify slavery and Nazi ism this isn't the first time And it just ended a tentacle to the core message of the of that but the advance by Paul who also says this and somehow attorney general sessions has not perhaps where this let it be genuine thank goodness another 10 faster that is good laughing in that Attention Do many nightmare and sharing and I do not like you see there be entered in spirit serve the lord extend hospitality to strangers The message of jesus was man of love I've been pressing them organize and mention special and he said well the little children come to me Jesus is hurt let's be breaking as our arms there's scientific evidence that infants ripped from their parents are the pride and Turner and paternal ebony we settle this trauma in k through the empire last and rather than him is being done now This is institutionalized child abuse Isn't mention a better than this in the name of the hand of God and we are in whatever way is open to us Mass tries up to end this atrocity now And now And this Now And now my name is The founder of applying international I am African American clergy woman that's baptist that happens to be the descendants of the slaves that parents but I'm telling you every time the slave master and not three and this is not free and it doesn't hurt because the changes that is max stuff Africa and every snack places and they came and max And 50 bag I yeah listen I've been back in the bag and say that and balance and the tension centers Let us know what is happening everyone let me It has because I haven't had to turn around and then they change it they let a lot of That's actually kind of Is it getting made So It's like telling us I'm gonna That is fast and he has to have the policy back and back and To It's policy did that It's an instrument that's right this is a reckoning That Doctor plan that defines comes as this That and then less fat than lines as best that you do this and then the impossible this baddies the has that thing that they And the mandarin in the morning they came in the night night coming God God did they say no That's What this one is an American and it is using and we miss the paint to anyone that has an and bend the strips into the mother's Sudan the snatches and ever present them others to that that's something that we put in there not the silent present the mother still stand if you are not mentioned in the first to be silent this And yes And simply one of that's it doesn't Today is the day God bless you amen Can everybody here who's on the managers can save them and Santa and second just says to me man I'm trying to go Let them say that go Let's pitch Again I'm sorry we all have to be here but thank you for being here and standing up for our families please join us in singing a closing song it's called we shall over come it's very important to the history of freedom in this country and uh please sing along if you know it and I'll do my best to lead you all in the lyrics and uh Please protect with us on this and the importance of this of this day of this cause We salute your home Next month's goes we will walk hand in hand What do you hope There's a little bit tell me We sell all be free three So I'll be presented me So the Let's not be afraid we are not afraid Not afraid Now we're gonna do a verse we shall over come try to think about all the people that have been separated right now how the families that have tried to cross over in search of a better life for their families only to give them a better future and then that being separated never to lady see them again Just think about that as you see this last there's together Interesting that he has inside alright alright Michelle I love Thank you all for being here because people said