The St. Brigid Catholic Church in Westbury held a Pilgrimage of Hope Walk on Sunday, July 20, as members of the congregation marched through the streets to stand together against fear.
Father John Sureau was one of the people who helped put everything together. He said there are many issues causing hopelessness and despair, with immigration concerns a main cause.
The pastor said it was not intended to be a political walk, but rather a form of unity for the community.
“The thing for us is always to see the dignity and the value of every human being,” Sureau said.
The walk began at the church, located at 85 Post Ave., and headed north. The marchers then turned right on Union Avenue until reaching Prospect Avenue and walking through the streets of New Cassel before ending near the church’s immigration outreach center, Casa Mary Johanna.
Sureau said there were likely 300 people in attendance for the walk.
Marchers did not chant but held up signs and wore T-shirts supporting immigration in silence, according to Jim Hickey, a member of the congregation who participated in the march.
He has lived in Westbury for nearly 40 years, saying he joined the walk because it is important to stand up for what he believes is wrong.
“To me silence is complicity,” he said.
After the march, congregation members joined together in prayer, which had an emotional impact on him.
“To be honest, I was moved to tears at the end of it,” Hickey said.
Hickey said Sureau has always made an effort to support the heavily migrant community in Westbury. Sureau is bilingual, and both the church’s website and phone directory are in English and Spanish.
ICE raids have been a growing topic throughout the country that has caused fear in Hispanic communities.
Sureau said the Pilgrimage of Hope Walk wasn’t the first community event at the church in support of migrants.
He said the church held a prayer service led by children during National Migration Week in September 2024 and that the church has held weekly Monday prayers devoted to those who live in fear of what is occurring throughout the country.
The pastor also said many in the community are afraid for their children to play outside, so the church frequently opens at night for families to feel more comfortable.
The county has a partnership with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, authorizing 10 Nassau detectives to exercise the power to enforce immigration law when ICE agents are not readily available.
Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman announced in February that the East Meadow county jail, located just five minutes away by car from Westbury and New Cassel, would be open to holding individuals detained by ICE. Since then more than 1,400 detained immigrants have passed through its jail cells.
In June, multiple ICE encounters were reported in Westbury.
A Brentwood man claimed he was wrongfully stopped, searched, detained and handcuffed by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Westbury on June 3.
A few days later, a car accident involving an ICE agent near one of the school district’s buildings caused dozens of people to protest.
