The sanctuary at the Tabernacle Baptist Outreach Center was full. Local civil activist Brandon Randleman said with Suffolk traffic at 4 p.m. Thursday, that was a miracle.
Randleman organized a rally to protest the possibility of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement moving into a warehouse nearby.
The city of Suffolk let large property owners know in March it doesn’t want them to turn warehouses over to ICE to use as detention centers. But local businessman Johnny Garcia has been in talks to lease 9,000 square feet of office space off of Wilroy Road in Suffolk to the agency, The Virginian-Pilot reported.
Garcia is CEO of SimIS, a security technology company, and the president and CEO of the Hispanic Chamber of Coastal Virginia. Garcia didn't respond to WHRO’s request for comment before publication.
Randleman said he doesn’t believe the building would be used for offices.
“Who needs 9,000 square feet of office space for a satellite federal administrative building?” he asked the crowd on Thursday.
Others at the rally shared Randleman’s concern the warehouse would actually be used as a detention center. For many, their opposition is rooted in faith and Christian values.
Pastor Justin Goodman opened the rally by reading scripture about helping the vulnerable.
“I believe that's what we ought to be, a city of compassion, a city of dignity, a city where we welcome even the foreigner and the stranger,” he said.
Garcia told The Pilot his decision to negotiate a lease with ICE is just business. Leslie Rinaldi with the Suffolk Democratic Committee said the justification falls flat.
“When your decision brings fear into a neighborhood and destabilizes family, it stops being just business,” she said. “It becomes a choice about what kind of community you're willing to profit from and what kind of a community you're willing to damage.”
Patricia Bracknell, founder and CEO of The Chamber For Hispanic Progress, said people in Hampton Roads are already suffering from ICE activity. Last October, a man fleeing from ICE agents on foot was hit and killed by a car on I-264 in Norfolk. If a new facility opens, Bracknell said she worries what that will mean for the Hispanic community.
“Are we willing to accept the harm as the cost of doing business?” she said.
The Suffolk-News Herald reported Wednesday Garcia hasn’t heard from ICE in weeks – a sign the deal could have fallen through.
But Randleman said that doesn’t mean the threat is over.
“We as citizens have come out to say, ‘No ICE facility in Suffolk today. No ICE facilities in Suffolk yesterday. And no ICE facilities in Suffolk tomorrow,’” he said.
