Students gather in remembrance and solidarity with detained immigrants

Each participant held a paper monarch butterfly in their hands as a speaker read the names of immigrants who have died in a detention center. 

As Regis students Alondra Gil-Gonzalez, Ashley Garcia-Torres and Brianna Flores-Chavez shared, like immigrants, monarch butterflies travel far for a better environment. In partnership with advocacy nonprofit the American Friends Service Committee, Regis students, faculty and staff participated in a vigil at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Denver Contract Detention Facility in Aurora in November. The event was held in remembrance of people who have died within the center and to show support for people who are detained there. Everyone who attended the vigil placed a butterfly on an altar, similar to those traditionally seen on Dia de los Muertos, to honor the lives lost.

The American Friends Service Committee, which has been organizing vigils at the site since 2009 in partnership with local organizations, hosts the events to “stand in witness and solidarity with the people inside this detention center,” said Jordan Garcia, the organization’s immigrant ally organizing director. Regis students involved in the University’s Center for Service Learning organized the November vigil, taking leadership roles in an issue that, for many, feels personal.

Gil-Gonzalez, a Regis senior majoring in Peace and Justice Studies and Spanish, said many of the Regis students who participated in the vigil come from immigrant households — making the issue hit close to home. During the vigil, Gil-Gonzalez translated from English to Spanish the words of each speaker.

“We always do this because it's something that's very important to us,” Gil-Gonzalez said. “And in a sense, it shows the importance not only, of course, of communities who are impacted, but also the students of Regis who should be focusing on these things that are impacting not only their peers, but also people all over the world."

Melissa Nix, the director of Curriculum and Intercultural Programming for the Center for Service Learning, said the office makes sure to put students at the center of service projects — giving them the space to act upon the issues that are most important to them.

“We believe students need to be the absolute center of our programming,” she said. “(We’re) seeing students as colleagues and putting students at the center of that work, so that they're both helping to define what's most important that we focus on, and that we give them the opportunities to be our colleague.”

In addition to participation from the Center for Service Learning, all of Regis’ peer ministers, students who offer spiritual guidance to their fellow students, traveled to the center to participate.

Peer minister and third-year pharmacy student Jason Dizon said the vigil aligned with the Jesuit value of Men and Women for and with Others.

“What inspires me is to take my time away from school and to live out these values, these Jesuit values, in the community around me,” he said.

The Center for Service Learning is looking ahead to the next vigil, which will be hosted in front of the detention center in February. To learn about how to get involved, email the center at rcservicelearning@regis.edu.