By Father Frank Alagna
Delivered at the Indivisible Benefit Concert, Woodstock, August 17, 2025
Friends, my name is Father Frank Alagna, and I am a founding member of the Ulster Immigrant Defense Network. Since 2017, UIDN has provided support, safety, and advocacy for our immigrant friends and neighbors.
Today, with nearly 400 volunteers, we serve more than 1,000 families every month through a wide range of services. I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to speak with you today and address this deeply moral moment in our history.
Before the next beat drops, before the music takes us to higher ground, I need to speak a deeper truth that must echo louder than the loudest bass line.
Right now, in this nation, families are once again being torn apart, and lives are being vanquished. Not by war. Not by plague. But by a morally vacant administration. By policies rooted in fear and racism. By a deportation machine that operates with terrifying precision and chilling disregard both for the requirements of law and the requirements of basic human dignity. Masked ICE agents, the Gestapo of this hour, raid homes in the middle of the night.
They snatch people off streets and out of workplaces without warning. They stalk children at school bus stops. They tear mothers away from their babies. Fathers away from their children. People away from the only lives they’ve ever known. All in the name of “law and order”. But there is no law where there is no justice. And there is no order where cruelty has been made an acceptable norm.
Let me say it plainly: This is gross moral failure. This is spiritual death. This is diabolical evil. Whether or not you claim to believe in God, claim to be a disciple of Jesus, or hold to the justice of the Hebrew prophets, our shared humanity compels us to not be silent.
The Hebrew Scriptures tell us: “You shall not wrong or oppress a stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.” And Jesus whose life began as a refugee fleeing state violence, said: “I was a stranger, and you welcomed me” You did not ignore me. You did not deport me. You did not lock me in a detention center with my children sleeping on concrete floors. You welcomed me.
So how dare any sit silently while ICE turns neighborhoods into hunting grounds? How dare any worship on weekends and turn their backs on Monday when our undocumented neighbors are dragged into vans and sent to countries they haven’t seen since they were toddlers or possibly have never seen at all?
This is not complicated. This is not a “political” issue. It is a moral issue. This is an issue of conscience. It is about whether we believe that human beings, all made in the image of God, deserve dignity, safety, and compassion.
If you have a conscience. Now is the time to use it. If you have a voice. Now is the time to lift it. If you have any faith worth holding onto, put it to work right now. If you are not a person of faith, but believe in the requirements of our shared humanity, now is the time to demand justice.
We need to resist. We need to disrupt. We need to protect our neighbors, build sanctuaries, flood the phone lines, and shut down every cruel operation that tears people from safety. We need to let that convicted felon and sexual predator, and the sycophants who do his bidding know:
You do not speak for us. Your fear does not define us. Your laws of cruelty will be broken by a higher law, the law of love.
And this is what love looks like: It shelters the vulnerable. It defends the stranger. It speaks out even when it’s hard. It costs something – but it saves everything. So today, as we enjoy the music, let this not be an escape from the world, but a declaration to the world.
Let the rhythm of our resistance rise. Let our movement be louder than their violence. Let our love be braver than their fear. Let us find a way, time, talent, or treasure to serve the cause of the most pressing moral issue of this hour.
Because as long as people are being hunted, we will not stop. As long as families are being torn apart, we will not be silent. And as long as there is breath in our lungs, we will fight for justice, and we will do this together.
May God give us strength. May love, give us courage. And may we never, ever look away. Thank you.
Right now, families are once again being torn apart, and lives are being vanquished. Not by war. Not by plague. But by a morally vacant administration. By policies rooted in fear and racism. By a deportation machine that operates with terrifying precision and chilling disregard for the requirements of law and the requirements of basic human dignity.
The Hebrew Scriptures tell us: “You shall not wrong or oppress a stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.” And Jesus whose life began as a refugee fleeing state violence, said: “I was a stranger, and you welcomed me” You did not ignore me. You did not deport me.
Your cruel law will be broken by a higher law, the law of love. Love that shelters the vulnerable. Defends the stranger. Speaks out even when it’s hard. It costs something – but saves everything. So today, as we enjoy the music, let this not be an escape from the world, but a declaration to the world.
Photos from top: Columbia County Sanctuary Movement and American Immigration Council/Immigration Impact.
